


Step by Step

by Arkiem



Series: Little Tribulations [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Pre-The Avengers Age of Ultron, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Play, Baby!Tony, Daddy!Steve, De-Aged Tony Stark, Diapers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Non-Sexual Age Play, Nursery, Pacifiers, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Kissing, Sick!Tony, Temper Tantrums, Tony's afraid of deep water, Vomiting, bottles, daddy!Bucky, kinda plotless, non-sexual infantilism, tantrums, uncle!bruce - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2018-12-04 22:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkiem/pseuds/Arkiem
Summary: If they wanted him to reverse the spell cast on Tony, Loki demanded his requests to be heard. Thor couldn't grant that, so both have gone back to Asgard and left Tony unchanged. He's more used to being a baby now, and Steve and Bucky are still willing to look after him. Though that doesn't mean everything is going to be peaches and cream now.





	1. Earache

**Author's Note:**

> Well, as the previous entry, I'm not going to get into details about what happened exactly, what is in the summary is pretty much everything. Tony will have to wait some more before Loki changes him back. I'll stick to my original ending, I think baby Tony is extremely cute, and I love writing about him, but I just don't think he would be okay with staying as a baby even if Steve and Bucky do their best when looking after him. This is just a guilty plesuare to continue writing about his tirbulations :p.
> 
> So, here you'll find some more one-shots, pretty much as the last entry (I kind of considered those chapter like one-shots too, i don't know), but just of de-aged!Tony. I do plan on writting some one-shots of the way Adult!Tony struggles after such an experience, but I'll guess that would be in another entry. 
> 
> Don't really have a lot of ideas for this one, even this chapter was unfinished in my computer for some time, I just decided to finish it. what I mean with this is that this story might not be very constant, if I get an idea, I'll write it, but that's pretty much it. I'll also keep adding tags depending on what I come up with.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it :)

Steve peeked over the notebook on which he was sketching, a motion he had been doing every five minutes for the last hour. A fond smile appeared on his face as soon as his eyes met Tony. Only twenty minutes ago, Tony had been more focused on the tablet that now lay forgotten in front of him, going through some calculations he had been working throughout the week; but now, his eyes were glued to the TV, completely immersed in the movie that was on. Even the pacifier in his mouth wasn't being paid much attention, a lazy suck every now and then surely when Tony felt it slipping out of his mouth. 

Steve figured he had enough time to finish his drawing, Tony would certainly keep himself entertained with the movie until it finished, something that wouldn’t happen for thirty minutes at least. He might have to check his diaper before, but he rather wait. God help him if he interrupted Tony while he was focused on something. He didn't throw fits as often as he used to, though there were certain things that never failed to make him moody. 

So, Steve focused on his drawing, so much that he got a bit surprised when he felt a tug in his pants right when he was shading the background. Putting the notebook down on his lap, Steve leaned out and cracked a big smile when he saw Tony holding out his arms to be picked up. 

“What is it, sweetheart? Did the movie get boring?” Steve asked, scooping him up. Tony shook his head as Steve sat him on his lap, something that apparently Tony didn’t like. Before Steve could place an arm around his waist, Tony tried to stand up. “Wow, easy there, you’re going to fall,” Steve warned, trying to keep Tony seated. 

“Up!” Tony demanded with a big pout on his face, reaching out for him. Steve raised a confused eyebrow, though he didn’t hesitate to bring Tony to his chest, and couldn’t help juddering slightly when Tony nuzzled up to his neck, as if looking for a more comfortable position. 

“I guess someone’s ready for his nap,” Steve crooned as he placed a hand over Tony’s back and rub his thumb against it. He would never get tired of the way Tony instinctively melted into his body. For someone who claimed to dislike physical contact, Tony seemed to have learned to how to enjoy it. And even if Steve was more than willing to provide Tony with as many cuddles as he wanted, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. 

Tony _hated _nap time. If Bucky and he were lucky enough, it would take them around thirty minutes to get Tony to sleep. They were rarely that lucky.__

It always started with Tony yawing and rubbing his eyes periodically, until the intervals between his blinking became shorter and shorter. Then, he began to nod off, which Steve have to admit was cutely fun to see, because Tony stubbornly insisted on remaining sat, but he was way too sleepy to keep his head upright. That was when Bucky and he became tensed, as it seemed Tony would lose conscious at any time and he would fall flat on his face. The problem was that, if any of them tried to pick up Tony in that moment to take him to his crib, Tony would get livid and would fight sleep with all his might. That only worsened things, because Tony would eventually reach that point where he’s unable to sleep no matter how tired he was. So, they had to wait until they were completely sure he was more asleep than awake. 

Therefore, the fact that Tony had gotten up and come to him willingly spoke volumes. 

“Do you need a change, baby?” Steve wondered out loud, earning a groan from Tony when he stuck a finger into the leg gusset of the diaper, just to find it dry. 

Weird. What had prompted Tony to approach him then? Had he started to have nightmares again? Steve didn’t remember noticing any signs that indicated that. 

“Dada,” Tony whined near his ear, breaking Steve’s train of thought. 

“What is it, baby?” Steve questioned, brushing a kiss over the top of his head. Tony kicked his legs slightly as an answer. Steve chuckled as he stood up. That meant motion could only mean two things: Tony wanted to be rocked or bounced. 

****

**__________**

“Hey doll, morning,” Bucky greeted as he stepped into de kitchen, looking down in the very moment when the baby-walker collided with his shin. “What is it? You don’t wanna be there anymore?” he asked when Tony raised his arms, reaching out for him. “Come here, let me get you out of there,” he offered.

Bucky crouched down in front of him and placed his hands on Tony’s sides in order to lift him. Tony didn’t mind using the walker every now and then, especially in the mornings when he was too drowsy to concentrate on keeping his balance. But there were some days where Tony would get tired of it soon and preferred to walk by himself even if he sometimes fell down. 

“Now you’re free, doll,” Bucky announced after freeing the foot that had gotten stuck in seat of the walker. After kissing him on the cheek, Bucky put Tony down on the floor and got up to walked towards the kitchen island, behind which Steve was cooking breakfast. “It smells wonderful,” he exclaimed, sniffing, “what are you making?”

“Pancakes,” Steve answered, turning around to show him the pan where a dinosaur-shaped pancake was finishing cooking. Steve’s pancakes were delicious; the bad thing was that his artistic side allowed him to create such beautiful shaped pancakes that Bucky felt a bit bad eating them. “Why don’t you start setting up the table? Breakfast’s almost ready,” Steve asked. Bucky took a few seconds more to inhale the scent of freshly made pancakes, and he felt someone tugging at his pants right when he was about to go and fetch the plates.

“Papa,” Tony called.

“Yes, sweetheart?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion when Tony held out his arms, demanding to be picked up. Bucky gladly did. “Do you want to help dada to decorate the pancakes?” he proposed. Steve wasn’t very enthusiastic about that, Tony tended to put too much whipped cream on them, and even if they had started to feed him with more than baby food, they didn’t want to overdo it.

“No,” Tony denied with a tiny voice, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s neck and cuddling as deep into his embrace as possible. Bucky turned around to face Steve, and with gestures, he silently asked him what was going on with Tony. He didn’t reject physical contact as much as he did at the beginning, but he didn’t look for it either. 

Steve shrugged, “he’s been like that since yesterday,” he commented whispering, flipping the pancake. Both Steve and he tried not to make a big deal whenever Tony did something that was uncharacteristic of him – well, of his adult self – afraid he got embarrassed and stop doing it, but either of them couldn’t help getting a bit worried when that happened.

“Then I guess you’re helping papa set up the table,” Bucky announced, though he ended up doing all the work. He did try to get Tony to reach for his plate and cutlery that were kept in one of the cabinets, but Tony refused to let go of his neck. He even whined loudly when Bucky stopped bouncing him, and ended up sitting on his lap as he didn’t allow Bucky to put him in his highchair. 

“Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Bucky commented, rubbing a thumb against Tony’s tummy. 

With his free hand, he reached for the plate Steve had put in front of him a bit too far. He grabbed a fork and cut a little piece of the tail, feeling awful because the dinosaur looked too happy and Bucky was about to wipe it out. He would have started with the banana and kiwi palm three that was right next to the dinosaur, but Tony usually complained if he was given fruit before the pancakes. 

“Open up, doll,” Bucky said, holding up the plastic fork in front of Tony’s mouth. Tony pulled his face away right away, digging his nails into Bucky’s arm, which reminded him they needed to be cut. “What’s the matter, baby? You don’t want papa to feed you?” he asked, feeling a little disappointed when Tony shook his head. Steve and he were trying to give him more space and freedom so that Tony didn’t get upset and sick of them. However, Tony didn’t seem to mind being fed, and Bucky had to admit he liked doing it. 

“Cut it up and let him feed himself,” Steve suggested as he sat in front of them, a bowl of chopped fruit in his hands. 

Bucky did as Steve told him and made sure the pancake was in small pieces to avoid the risk of chocking if Tony didn’t chew correctly before swallowing. Then, he drew up the chair closer to the table so Tony didn’t struggle reaching for the plate, but Tony didn’t want to feed himself either. Hiding his face in his chest, Tony clutched the fabric of Bucky’s t-shirt, and refused to let go, whining loudly if Bucky attempted to push him away.

“Tony, you have to eat, breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Steve said, sounding too much like a commercial. 

“They’re pancakes, doll, you like pancakes,” Bucky pointed out, rubbing slow circles onto Tony’s back. Tony shook his head. “Aren’t you hungry?” he asked, Tony shook his head for a third time. 

With a baffled expression on his face, Bucky looked up at Steve, who was mirroring his bewilderment. It was far from the first time that Tony refused to eat, Bucky had lost count of how many times he had had Tony in the highchair, wailing at the top of his lungs because he didn’t want to be fed. Though, what had caused the tantrums in those times had been the fact that Tony didn’t like what he was being given or there was something else available that Tony considered more delicious. Right now, neither of those things were the reason. Tony loved pancakes and they hadn’t showed him anything that he would preferred over them. 

After a lot of futile coaxing, Steve gestured Bucky to stop insisting. Perhaps Tony wasn’t hungry for real. They couldn’t force him to eat if that was the case. And scolding him was off the table too, how to scold Tony if he wasn’t even throwing a fit? 

****

**__________**

“He feels warmer than usual,” Steve affirmed, the back of his hand pressed against Tony’s cheek. Tony stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up. 

“You’re imagining things, he doesn’t feel hotter to me,” Bucky argued, placing his hand on the other cheek. 

“I think he might be running a low fever,” Steve insisted, brushing a wisp of hair off Tony’s forehead. 

Bucky rolled his eyes, “he’s not. You do the same every time he behaves a little more childishly. Maybe he just wants to be cuddled,” he protested, taking a few steps away from Steve. If he continued trying to verify whether Tony’s temperature was different or not, he would end up waking him up. 

“I know he’s changed since all this started, but tell me when he’s wanted to be cuddled for no apparent reason? There’s always something involved, like a nightmare or an attempt to distract us from a mischief,” Steve stated. 

More than anybody else, Steve wanted to believe Tony had finally understood it was okay to ask for a hug or reassurance when he needed it, but Steve knew there still was a long way to reach that point. The fact that Tony had insisted on staying in their arms all day told Steve there was something off. 

“What if he’s just feeling sad? I mean, staring into space wasn’t much of a reaction, especially since Loki left without removing whatever spell he casted on him. Maybe the fact that he’ll have to wait for who knows how long more to be an adult again is just sinking in,” Bucky suggested, speaking quietly in case Tony was awake. 

“I don’t know,” Steve expressed, flopping down onto the couch. Getting sad didn’t sound like something Tony would do, especially about a situation like that. He would get angry, throw a tantrum, demand to be taken to Asgard, anything but getting downcast. 

“Besides, we asked him if he was feeling sick, and he said ‘no’.”

“Have you met Tony? When has he admitted being sick? Remember a few months ago when he was teething, he preferred to be in pain for almost a week than to tell us about it so we could help him,” Steve recalled. 

“Okay, okay, we’ll keep an eye on him, if he shows any sign of being sick, we’ll have Bruce check on him, but if nothing seems to be wrong, you’ve gotta promise to stop this nonsense. If you don’t, you’re just gonna upset him,” Bucky dictated as he began to bounce Tony gently. 

****

**__________**

There was someone sobbing. Bucky could hear someone sobbing in the distance. Why was someone sobbing at such an hour? Wasn’t it supposed to be night? Maybe he was imagining everything, maybe he was just dreaming. But why would he dream about someone sobbing? Was it one of the nightmares he usually had about the things he had done when he was under HYDRA’s mind control? Was he going to see one of the hundreds of victims whose life he took? It had been a while since he had had a nightmare, though he didn’t remember being too self-conscious during one. 

Actually, Bucky doubted it was a dream. You couldn’t be self-conscious if you were asleep, could you? So, that meant he was awake, wasn’t it? Awake but with his eyes closed. Closed because he was supposed to sleep during the night. Even without opening his eyes Bucky knew it was still nighttime, he knew it was still dark outside. He was going to go back to sleep then, no reason to stay awake if tomorrow was his turn to look after Tony in the morning, so Steve could go jogging and training. He pulled closer the pillow he had been hugging as he rolled over, and when he did that, that sobbing that had woken him up grew louder. Was the person sobbing next to him? 

Bucky snapped his eyes open when his mind was clear enough to remember Tony was sleeping with him. 

“Tony!” Bucky expressed, sitting up. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the lack of light, and his heart twitched when he saw Tony on the corner of the bed, trembling in that way which indicated he was chocking back sobs. “Hey, baby boy, what the matter?” he questioned, moving closer to him, “Did you have a nightmare?” he asked, though he doubted that had been the case. 

If Tony had a nightmare, he tended to snuggle closer to Steve or him, not to withdraw. Perhaps he had had an accident? Had the diaper overflowed? It wouldn’t be the first time that happened, and it would certainly be something that caused such a reaction in Tony. But Tony hadn’t eaten anything during all day, and he had barely drunk any liquids, so Bucky doubted that was the reason. He reached for Tony and placed him on his lap, not getting surprised at all when he verified Tony hadn’t used his diaper yet. 

“What is it, Tony?” Bucky said, pulling Tony to his chest. Tony whined a little, but didn’t try to get away. “Shhh, it’s okay baby, papa’s here,” he soothed, pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead. “JARVIS, could you verify if Bruce is in the Tower? And if he is, please wake him up,” he ordered. 

Tony’s temperature was higher than normal. Not high enough to rush to the nearest hospital, but high enough to get a little worry. 

****

**__________**

“I told you he was sick,” Steve complained. It wasn’t like he was mad at Bucky for not taking him seriously when he had commented his concern about the matter – he was well aware of the fact that he tended to overreact a little with things that had something to do with Tony – he just needed to express his preoccupation somehow. 

“I know, I’m sorry,” Bucky apologized, trying to keep Tony still on his lap. Even if it was just Bruce, Tony had never liked check-ups. Steve remembered he had had to literally restrain adult Tony once, since he totally refused to be examined after a receiving a serious blow to his head during a battle. “Shhh, take it easy Tony, it’s just Bruce, he just wants to check your temperature.”

“Yes Tony, I promise I won’t hurt you,” Bruce assured, squatting in front of Bucky and Tony. “Look, I’m just going to put this into your ear for a few seconds,” he informed, showing Tony the thermometer he had in his hands, “it won’t hurt at all.” 

“No,” Tony whined, shaking his head. The way he winced didn’t go unnoticed by Steve. 

“Sorry Tony, but I have to,” Bruce apologized, “Hold his head, please,” he instructed Steve, “I don’t want him to move it.” 

Steve did as he was told, and he wished he hadn’t. He wished he hadn’t let Bruce introduce that thing in Tony’s ear, because the moment he did, Tony cried in a way that made everybody shudder. 

“What the hell Bruce?” Steve barked, taking a now wailing Tony in his arms. The shocked had let the curse word slip out without realizing it.

“I barely touched his ear, I swear,” Bruce defended himself, sounding truthful. “You know perfectly well I’ll never hurt him. There must be something wrong with his ear,” he uttered. 

After promising him he would be very, _very_ careful, Steve let Bruce get closer to Tony once more. It was obvious Bruce hadn't meant to hurt him, but Steve couldn't help feeling too protective of Tony. He actually had to refrain himself from pushing Bruce away when he insisted on checking the inside of Tony’s ears, finding very hard to hear Tony’s cries without doing anything about it. 

Even Bucky got a glared from him when the former chuckled a bit at Tony’s reaction of trying to hide his butt desperately as soon as Bruce said he would have to take his temperature in another way since his ears were out of limits, but decided not to make a fuss about it. If Steve hadn’t been worrying sick about Tony, he might also have found it amusing, especially after Tony clearly relaxed in his arms when Bruce sent Bucky to retrieve a forehead thermometer he had in the drawer in his laboratory. 

“I’m afraid he’s developing an ear infection,” Bruce said after what seemed a never-ending examination, “that’s why his ear hurt and the reason he's running a low fever too.” 

“An ear infection? What causes it?” Steve asked.

“Actually, ear infections are very common in children, almost as much as colds,” Bruce explained, “there are many reasons why Tony could have gotten one, we have to take into consideration that his immune system is probably not as strong as his adult counterpart’s. So relax, this would happen sooner or later,” he assured, taking a load off Steve’s mind. The mere thought of being the responsible of Tony’s current state devastated him, after all, he had never been in charge of a baby, and even if Bucky and he were doing their best, there were a lot of things they didn’t know about baby care. 

“And what’s the treatment?” Bucky questioned, rubbing a thumb against the small of Tony’s back. 

“Well, his eardrum is red and bulging, but I didn’t see any draining, so I can’t say for sure if it’s infected or not. And his fever is not that high either,” Bruce commented, hand over his chin, “most ear infections clear up on their own, so I’d like to wait and see if this is the case before I prescribe any antibiotics. You can give him ibuprofen for the fever and pain in the meantime,” he hurried to suggest when he saw Steve opening his mouth ready to protest. No giving Tony something for the pain was not an option.

****

**__________**

“Come on, baby, you have to drink this, it’d help you with the pain,” Steve coaxed, holding up the teaspoon in front of his mouth, but Tony kept dodging it. It was getting harder and harder to convince him to take the ibuprofen. At the beginning Steve had thought Tony refused because it was medicine, everybody knew Tony and medicine didn’t mix; soon he found out it was due to the pain Tony experienced every time he swallowed. 

The last couple of days had been awful. Against Bruce’s expectations, Tony’s immune system didn’t seem to be doing much against the apparent infection, and Tony hadn’t gotten better. All the symptoms worsened, and even new ones appeared. 

The earache had increased, and Tony made sure to notify them about that by constantly tugging at his left ear. That constant discomfort had made Tony very irritable, and he had spent the days alternately wanting to be left alone and demanding for comfort. Eating and drinking were pretty much off the table, Bucky had been just lucky enough to get Tony to drink half a bottle of formula and eat some pieces of a banana during the first day, before Tony declined emphatically any food or drink he was offered. Steve didn’t blame him, besides the fact that little amount of food had upset Tony’s stomach enough to make him throw up, if swallowing caused more pain, it was obvious and understandable that Tony wouldn’t want to do it. 

And if that weren’t enough, Tony had had a lot of difficulty sleeping. First, it was obvious he couldn’t stand being lying down for long, so Bucky and Steve had taken turns to hold him. Second, if Tony managed to fall asleep, no matter how still and quiet they were, he woke up not long later, whining and pulling his ear. 

“Come on, champ, open up,” Steve insisted, caressing Tony’s cheek with his thumb. Tony shook his head almost imperceptibly, shedding a tear that rolled freely down his face. It was heartbreaking to see Tony with teary eyes almost all day. Steve had found out that he preferred having a wailing Tony than a sobbing one. Wailing usually meant that Tony was throwing a fit, on the other hand, sobbing suggested there was something seriously bad. 

“He hasn’t taken it yet?” Bucky asked, walking into the living room from the kitchen, hand shaking a bottle. 

“No, he doesn’t want to.”

Bucky sat down next to him, and leaned so he could reach Tony’s face to wipe away the tears, “doll, if you don’t take your medicine, your ear’s gonna keep hurting.” 

“’ut,” Tony said with a miserable tiny voice. 

“We know it does, but it’s just gonna be for a few seconds, then the medicine will kick in and you won’t feel pain,” Bucky explained. Tony choked a sob and winced. “I know you can do it baby, come on, just try it,” he pleaded, taking one of Tony’s hand in his to pull it closer and brush a kiss over it. 

Tony looked up at him, expression aggrieved, but he opened his mouth a little after some seconds. Hesitating, Steve popped the spoon in and couldn’t help flinching in sympathy when Tony’s face crumpled in pain as he forced the liquid to go down his throat. The fingers from his free hand curled into the fabric of his t-shirt and his body tensed, fresh tears welling up in his eyes. 

“You’re so brave sweetheart, we’re so proud of you!” Steve praised, handing the spoon to Bucky so he could ehug Tony with both arms. 

“Such a good boy,” Bucky applauded too. He raised the bottle that had been forgotten on the sofa, and put it down again when Steve shook his head. Minutes ago they had agreed to try to get Tony to drink some juice, having an empty stomach couldn’t be good when sick, though Steve didn’t want to push Tony more than it was necessary. He had taken the syrup, and that was enough for now. 

“I think we’ve waited enough, we should ask Bruce for the antibiotics,” Bucky vocalized. Steve nodded, and he brought his index finger to his mouth to indicate him to be quiet. Tony had closed his eyes, and Steve hoped that was a sign that indicated he was going to get some sleep. 

****

**__________**

“I think we should wait until tomorrow,” Bruce suggested. Bucky could tell Steve did not like that idea at all. Neither did he. “Doctors feel strongly about giving antibiotics to children, especially as young as Tony is now. He still hasn’t experience any ear drainage, and his temperature, even if it’s a bit higher than usual, hasn’t reached any alarming numbers.” 

“But he’s in pain,” Steve argued, keeping a close eye on Tony while Bruce examined the inside of Tony’s ears. 

“That’s why he’s been taking ibuprofen, it has helped with the pain, hasn’t it?” Bruce said, “look, it’s not like I’m downgrading the situation, I just don’t want to give him something that it’s not really necessary. Antibiotics can have some pretty annoying side effects, and according to research, most kids end up with stomachaches, diarrhea or even rashes. I don’t think Tony would like that,” he pointed out, petting Tony’s head tenderly. 

“He already vomited once,” Bucky recalled, folding his arms over his chest. 

“And you were ready to take him to the hospital. Imagine if now he throws up repetitively for the next couple of days?” Bruce commented. Bucky shuddered at the thought of that. 

“His ear keeps hurting him,” Steve insisted, scooping Tony up from the table he sat on so Bruce could check him up. 

Bruce sighed deeply. “I know I must sound like a horrible person to you right now. But, had you considered the fact that his pain threshold is not as high as it was when he was an adult? His body is not as resilient to pain as it used to be. You’ve told me he sometimes forgets his current state and tries to do things the way he used to do them when he was an adult, so there’s a change he remembers being able to suck up pain very well, and now that he can’t, he feels it’s worse than it really is,” he explained, going closer to Tony to continue petting his head, “besides, our perception is a little bit distorted too. We still remember a Tony who never complained that something hurt, so, now that he does, we can’t help worrying more than necessary”

That actually made sense. Bucky hadn’t gone to battle with Tony for as long as Steve had, yet, he had witnessed several times how Tony received blows and got beaten up by their enemies. However, after the battle was over, Tony never stayed to get checked over by SHIELD’s doctors, arguing he didn’t get injured as the suit protected him. Obviously Steve never bought that, and he usually hunted Tony down as soon as he was back in the Tower to make sure he had really gone through the fight unscathed. Sometimes Tony hadn’t. 

There had been one time when Tony had gotten his arm broken and had denied it until JARVIS had given him away. Bucky remembered feeling impressed by how Tony had endured the pain for so much time, after all, he was just a normal human being, and no human being would have been able to wear a poker face like Tony had done while having such an injure. Later Bucky would understand why Tony did that, and he would totally disagree with him. Tony was never a burden to anyone. 

But ever since Tony had been turned into a child, he seemed to have lost his capability to stand pain as stoically as he used to. He cried when he fell down, he cried when he ran into furniture, and he cried when one of his RC toys crashed into him by accident. It did seem his small body was more sensible now, he even bruised pretty easily. Not long ago he had scraped his knee, and it took Steve and he almost an hour to make him stop crying. So, there was the possibility that what Bruce had said was right, that his earache wasn’t that bad and Tony felt it was just because his tolerance to pain was decreased considerably. 

“So, what do you think Tony? Is the pain that really unbearable? Do you want me to give you something stronger for it?” Bruce asked, leaning forward a bit to be at Tony’s eyes level. Tony squirmed in Steve’s arms and brought the tip of his fingers to his mouth, but said nothing. He gave the impression of being slightly ashamed. Then, he turned his face away, and leaned against Steve chest. 

“I guess we could wait one more day,” Bucky conceded, Steve’s lips twisted, though he didn’t contradict him. 

“Keep giving him ibuprofen, and if he keeps complaining about the pain, you can place a warm and moist compress over his ear for some minutes. I’m sure my favorite buddy will feel better soon,” Bruce guaranteed, patting Tony’s back twice. 

****

**__________**

“Is he asleep?” Bucky whispered, reaching him from behind.

“It looks like,” Steve whispered back. He stopped the rocking just a moment to let Bucky kiss Tony on the back of his head. “I tried to tuck him in, but I guess his ear if still hurting, he didn’t want to stay lay down.” 

“Do you want help?” Bucky offered, holding out his arm as a gesture of wanting to take Tony in his arms. 

“It’s okay,” Steve declined the offer. It hadn’t been long since Tony had fallen asleep. Steve preferred to wait more time before trying to move him. After two nights of not sleeping a wink, Steve was willing to stay up all night rocking him if that guaranteed Tony would finally rest. 

****

**__________**

Steve could see out of the corner of his eye how Tony stared at him, two fingers inside his mouth. Or rather, how Tony stared at the waffle in his hand. 

Apparently, Bruce had been right. His earache had decreased, since Tony hadn’t complained about it as much as he had during the first days. The previous night Tony had even agreed to drink some formula, though Bucky had to twist the nipple off and let Tony drink straight from the rim of the bottle, as sucking seemed to still cause him some discomfort. The formula had slopped down his throat and damped his onesie, though Tony hadn’t mind. 

This morning, Steve had cooked breakfast and encouraged Tony to eat something more solid, unsuccessfully. He hadn’t wanted to eat anything, and allowed Bucky to give him just some juice. Yet, when Steve joined them in the living room with his breakfast in hand, Tony glanced at him and hadn’t taken his eyes off him ever since. 

“Would you like some?” Steve offered, raising a little the waffle so there was no doubt what he was talking about. Tony shook his head immediately, and snuggled closer to Bucky. 

“It’s okay doll, I don’t think your tummy will get upset this time,” Bucky prompted, his hand rubbing Tony’s stomach affectionately. Who would have guessed that Tony would considered vomiting worse than getting diarrhea.

Steve cut up a small piece of his waffle. “Here, honey,” he said, holding it in front of Tony. He looked at the waffle, he looked up at him, and then to the waffle again. It was until Steve pushed it again his hand that Tony took it. “Come on sweetheart, it’s delicious.”

Hesitating a lot, Tony took the piece to his mouth and bite it. Steve had make sure the waffles were soft enough so Tony didn’t have any problems when chewing. He might have been eating more solid things lately, and gotten more teeth, but some were still missing. For someone who claimed not wanting to eat, Tony ended up eating a whole waffle and half of another one, he even agreed to take a sip of Steve’s milkshake. 

“Someone’s tummy got a bit bigger,” Steve joked, caressing Tony’s abdomen fondly. Tony pushed his hand away, but he didn’t struggle or tried to get free when Steve picked him up and held him against his chest. Steve nuzzled his nose against Tony’s cheek, breathing in his scent, making Tony squirm a little. He found that baby scent very soothing. “How are you feeling sweetheart? For real?” he asked. Tony pushed himself off him and looked up at him with thoughtful expression on his face, then he babbled something as he shook his stretched out hand slightly. “That’s good, but if you feel any discomfort, however slight, I want you to tell papa or me,” he said. A slight blush spread across his cheeks, but Tony nodded. 

“You know, once he’s completely okay, we could take him outside again,” Bucky commented, taking the plate Steve had left on the sofa and placed him on the coffee table, “I’m sure your toy boats would like to be driven in a much bigger place than the bathtub.” 

“No!” Tony hurried denied, slapping Bucky on the face when he got closer to kiss him. 

“Hey! What did you do that for?” Bucky complained, faking to be truly hurt, “it was just an idea.” 

Steve chuckled when Tony blew a raspberry at Bucky. Normally, he would scold Tony for being disrespectful, but he decided he could let it pass this time. He adored having a clingy Tony who couldn’t get enough cuddles and comfort; however, after the last few days, Steve had found out a bratty Tony was also very enjoyable, perhaps because that misbehavior showed he was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About Bruce, well, I wasn't trying to make him look like a douche, I just thought it would be a good idea if there was someone who make Steve and Bucky see some 'reason'. I don't know, I'm a teacher, so I've seen plenty of parents overreacting for things are really not a big deal. I don't have any children of my own, I haven't really been around kids in my own family (I'm one of the youngest ones) so I don't really have much experience in this area.  
> Which brings me to my second point. I did some research about ear infections, and a lot of websites pointed out what Bruce said, most ear infections clear up by themselves. Sorry if the facts didn't meet reality, I know some of the people who read this have children and they have a much better understanding of how to deal with babies n_n'. I just wanted a sick!baby!Tony story (because, you know, the comfort ♥) and this is what I came up with.  
> And finally, well, just to remind you English is not my first language, and I've never lived in an English speaking country and I don't have bilingual parents or grandparents, so, if you see any horrible mistakes, please let me know, I would appreciate it a lot, as one of the reasons I started writting was because I wanted to improve my writting skills :)


	2. Beach House: Part One

“No!” Tony fumed, slamming his hands on the desk a couple of times. “’imme!”

“No, the last time I let you have it, you threw it and it broke. I’m not building it again,” Steve warned, brow slightly burrowed and voice serious. He was not giving in this time. 

“No! ‘imme!” Tony demanded once more before standing up and walking towards him. His small hands tried to take the smartphone – or what would luckily be a smartphone once Steve finished – but Steve’s grip was firm. He moved it away from Tony, and pushed him gently until his bottom reached the surface of the table. 

“Remember you promised you wouldn’t stand up,” Steve scolded. The memory of Tony falling off the table was still too fresh even if it had happened a while ago. 

“’imme!” Tony insisted, a huge pout on his face. 

“I won’t, so you can stop asking for it, you only distract me,” Steve said, squinting at Tony when he kicked his forearm, “the more you distract me, the more it’d take me to figure out what the problem is.”

Next month would be the month in which Stark Industries usually released the new models of its products, and any new gadget that Tony had developed over the year. However, given the circumstances, everything seemed to indicate that that wasn’t going to be possible this year. Or that was what Bucky and Steve had thought, because when Pepper had brought up the issue, Tony refused to sit back and do nothing. After a lot of discussion, they agreed to release at least an upgraded version of the Stark Phone. If Stark Industries didn’t provide its customers with any innovation, they would probably think there was something fishy and the press would want to interview Tony to find out what was going on, increasing that way the chances of what had happened to Tony coming to light. 

None of them wanted that to happen.

Because of that, Tony had been glued to his tablet over the last few weeks, programming. Bucky and Steve had no problem with that, as long as Tony got enough sleep and ate at least three meals a day, they figured it wouldn’t hurt to let him do some work. They understood Tony’s motives, and they just couldn’t keep banning Tony from working anymore. There were certain responsibilities Tony needed to meet, and waiting for him to be an adult again was starting to get a bit troublesome, especially since they had no idea when Thor would be able to bring Loki back so he could fix this mess. 

The problem arose when Tony finished programming the operating system and the only thing left to do was building the smartphone itself. Typing on a tablet wasn’t harmful at all, but assembling a smartphone was. Tony would need some tools to achieve that, tools that neither Bucky nor Steve were comfortable with allowing Tony to put his hands on, not when he lost his patience very easily now, and tended to threw everything out of frustration. So, Bucky volunteered to build it, though his metal arm complicated the task greatly. Steve ended up taking over, and he still didn’t know if that had been better or worse. 

Steve and technology just didn’t mix. Yes, he acknowledged its perks, and he would lie if he said some of the gadgets that Tony had introduced him to weren’t useful, fun or entertaining; but using them and assembling them were two totally different things. His mind couldn’t begin to understand how a smartphone worked, let alone how to build one from scratch. Tony was the tech savvy one, not him. Steve wasn’t ashamed to admit it seemed like Tony was speaking another language when he tried to explain him how one of his creations worked, technology was just not his cup of tea. 

Therefore, even if Tony wrote detailed instructions of what to do – which JARVIS kindly read out loud – and even if the A.I. was helping him too, this was the third time Steve built the smartphone and failed to make it work. This time, it wouldn't even turn on. What on earth was he doing wrong? 

"JARVIS, would you please scan it and tell me what the problem is," Steve asked, letting his head fall into his hands in frustration. The prototype was supposed to be finished by the end of the week, but at this rate, Steve doubted he would be able to meet that deadline. "Tony, stop that!" he ordered, when Tony restarted his attempts to grab the smartphone. 

“Me!” Tony said, one hand pointing at the phone and the other one at his chest. “I fis!” 

Steve took a deep breath, “that was what you said last time.” There was no doubt that Tony would find what was wrong right away; but when he did, he would try to fix it himself, he would get annoyed by the fact that his hands refused to move exactly as he commanded them to, and Steve was not in the mood of dealing with a cranky baby. 

“’imme!” Tony demanded, kicking his forearm for a second time.

“Seriously Tony, stop that.”

“No! ‘IMME!” 

“There seems to be a problem with the wiring, Captain Rogers,” JARVIS informed. Steve slammed his head down the table, groaning loudly. He swore he had connected everything correctly, how could he mess up if JARVIS had been telling exactly where everything was supposed to be?

“’emme shek!” Tony asked, and Steve could feel how he leaned on the back of his head, pulling the collar of his shirt and placing what undoubtedly felt like a foot against his shoulder. Was Tony really thinking on climbing him in order to get to the other side of the table where the smartphone was?

“Tony, get off me right now, or…” Steve started saying, though before he could finish the sentence, he felt how Tony jumped to try to get on him, and how he slipped off almost immediately. 

His heart stopped for a second, and Steve was delighted to find out that _butterfingers_ wasn’t an accurate word to describe Dum-E.

______________

"Hel… oh, why is this handsome baby crying?" Pepper asked when Steve stepped into the communal living room. She opened her arms, and beckoned to Tony by extending and retracting the fingers of her upturned palms. Tony reached for her right away, action that confirmed how angry he was at Steve. Pepper’s visits never thrilled Tony, she usually arrived with gifts Tony totally despised, and if she got her hands on him, there would absolutely be a lot of cuddles, kisses and pinches. Getting his cheeks pinched was something Tony loathed, he had bitten Clint the last time he dared to do that.

"Good afternoon," Steve greeted, leaning forward so Pepper could take Tony in her arms. 

"Oh, don’t cry darling, these beautiful brown eyes don’t look good with tears in them,” Pepper said, sitting Tony on her lap, one arm wrapped securely around his waist. If Pepper was getting troubled because of Tony’s sobs, Steve wondered how she would have reacted if she had heard Tony crying at the top of his lungs minutes ago when he had taken him out of the workshop. “What’s the problem, sweet cheeks? What happened?” she asked. Tony babbled, half choked with his sobs, as he pointed an accusatory finger at Steve. “Oh really? That Captain America is a meanie,” she said condescendingly, kissing the top of Tony’s head while she looked up at Steve. Clearly, she hadn’t understood any of the words Tony had said. 

Steve sat down next to them, left leg crossed over the right one, "he's mad at me because I took him out of the workshop." 

"Oh, but honey, the workshop is not a place for a child, you can get hurt," Pepper observed, and by the way Tony looked at her, Steve could tell he disagreed with her. “Oh, you were there because you were working on the prototype,” she remembered. Good, Steve didn’t feel like pointing out the obvious. He was tired, a bit irritated, and his back hurt as a result of being leaned on the table for many hours. For nothing. “How’s that going?”

Steve sighed heavily before relating her what had happened over the last days. 

“That’s why I told you to concentrate just on the coding and design,” Pepper recalled, “we have highly-qualified personnel who can build anything if you just provide them with the blueprints.”

“No! Me!” Tony refused, wiping away some tears with the back of his hand. Of course he did. Even if Tony could work effectively with others, when it came to working on his suit, improving everyone’s weapons or building his robots and gadgets, Tony preferred to do everything by himself. By doing so, he could spot and fix mistakes more easily, or that was what he had said when Steve asked him why he hired people to do everything for him but never to help him in his workshop. 

“But right now you can’t,” Pepper argued, “if you want anything to be released, you’ll have to let others help you this time,” she declared, and she raised an eyebrow when Tony stick his tongue out at her. 

Soon, Tony decided he didn’t want to be on Pepper’s lap anymore and he began to wriggle until Pepper couldn’t keep him in place anymore. She looked at Steve, silently asking him to take Tony afraid he ended up falling off, but Steve didn’t. An angry Tony never let himself to be held. Instead, Steve gestured her to put him down on the floor, and he rolled his eyes when he saw Tony tottering straight to the elevator as soon as his feet touched the ground. No matter how many times Bucky and he had told Tony the doors wouldn’t open if an adult wasn’t with him, he was too stubborn to give up. It was a matter of minutes to see him looking for something he could push and climb onto in order to reach the elevator’s button panel. 

“I’ll ask JARVIS to send me what Tony’s been working on,” Pepper informed, whispering. Both Pepper and Steve knew JARVIS would do it, even if Tony had commanded the A.I. not to do it. 

Tony still ordered the A.I. to do some things through the tablets or smartphones, but, given the circumstances, JARVIS let Bucky and Steve know when Tony demanded something he wasn’t allowed to do. Once, Tony tried to overwrite the A.I.’s code so JARVIS obeyed him regardless of his current predicament, and he had thrown a hell of a tantrum when JARVIS had giving him away. 

“I’ll get some of our best staff to build it,” Pepper continued. “Once it’s finished, I’ll let Tony check it so he can approve it before releasing it. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.” That actually took a load off Steve. If he had to keep his attempts to build the smartphone, he was pretty sure he would end up throwing it as Tony had. “I guess it won’t be easy to deal with him,” Pepper commented when she saw Tony trying to push an end table. 

How did Tony planned on climbing on it once it was in front of the elevator – if he could – Steve had no idea, though Tony never ceased to amaze him. He could get extremely creative, especially when trying to sneak out. 

Steve took a deep breath, “I guess we should be expecting some fits.” No matter how long he had looked after Tony, he would never get used to his tantrums. A tantrum meant that Tony was unhappy, and neither Bucky nor Steve liked that. 

“What if you take him away?” Pepper suggested, out of the blue. 

“What?”

“What if you take him away? I know how he is, you won't be able to keep him out of the workshop nor make him stop working on the phone. And it would be worse once he finds out about what I'm planning on doing," she observed, wincing when Tony pushed the end table so hard that the lamp on it fell off. "He owns some properties he acquired to use them whenever he needed to take a vacation. He's never done that, but they're always ready to be used." 

"I don't know," Steve said, deciding whether to go and stop Tony or not, not sure if he was ready to deal with a tantrum just yet. "He's been out just for a couple of times since this happened, and he hadn't liked it at all. He really doesn’t want anybody to see him in his current state." 

"They're completely private, no one will know where you’re going. And I can make arrangements so the house is equipped with everything you need to meet his needs. You know he would keep trying to get to the workshop if you stay here," Pepper pointed out. Steve turned his head around to look at her, an eyebrow raised. 

______________

"I thought one of the perks of traveling in a private jet was that you didn't have to deal with the things you deal with in coach class, like crying babies," Clint commented, eyes fixed on Tony, who was crying at the top of his lungs while he tried to unfasten the belt that was keeping him in the car seat. Bucky glared at him. 

A baby's cries were something almost no one could bear hearing for a long time, but Tony's, Jesus! His wails got on your nerves so badly that after just ten minutes of hearing him you couldn't take it anymore. Tony cried very heartbreakingly, and no matter what anyone did, he just wouldn't stop, at least not when his crying was a result of a fit. He could literally cry for hours. 

Even though Steve and Bucky had been the ones who had spent the most time with Tony, they hadn't gotten used to it, so Bucky perfectly understood why Clint was making those comments. Though that didn't mean he wanted to hear him complaining during all the flight.

"Why don't you go and sit over there?" Bucky suggested, pointing at the empty seat next to Bruce. 

"Yeah, because I won't be able to hear him if I move a couple of meters away," Clint said sarcastically. Bucky’s glare deepened, and that was all the motivation Clint needed to sand up and move to a different seat. 

"He's gonna hurt himself," Bucky warned, looking at how Tony kept pulling the harness away from him, his fingers bending in a way that had to be painful. 

Steve leaned over him, taking Tony’s hands in his, "Tony, sweetheart, stop doing that," he begged, but Tony ignored him completely and began squirming to set himself free from Steve's grip. Both Steve and Bucky sighed at the same time and winced when his cries reached a higher ear-piercing level. 

After doing a lot of thinking, they had decided to accept Pepper's proposal. Tony had shown them he wasn't going to give up so easily, and to be honest, neither Steve nor Bucky had the energy to continue dealing with his attempts to get to the workshop. The fear that he could get hurt always latent. So, both of them figured taking Tony away from the tower wouldn't be that bad, perhaps a change of scenery would help him to get distracted and forget about the whole smartphone issue at least for a while. Besides, they still believed it couldn't be healthy to avoid going outside for as long as Tony had, even if they completely understood why Tony wanted to stay indoors. 

Therefore, going to a private island for a few days didn't sound like such a bad idea. They would spend some time away from their routine, without having to worry about being seen as said island was an artificial one not many people knew of its existence – luxuries that Tony could afford – and hopefully, they would even have fun. Yes, that sounded good, so good that everybody else had decided to join them. Even Phil was going with them. Which was fine, everybody could use some time off. 

The problem was that, unlike everyone else, Tony didn't seem to want to go. That didn't surprise Steve or Bucky. Adult Tony had always been reluctant to take time off and go away even if it was just for a day, so it was to be expected that Tony, in his current situation, detested the idea even more. As a result of that, the whole trip thing was kept secret, and Tony hadn’t found out about it until they were boarding the jet. 

He hadn’t stopped crying since then, letting them know what he thought about their vacation plans. 

"Tony, you're going to hurt your throat, please quit it," Steve begged again, placing a hand on Tony's left leg. Tony began kicking before Steve had the chance to caress him. "Baby, please." he continued, turning his head to look at Bucky, silently asking for back up. 

Bucky shook his head slightly. This was clearly one of the times where they would have to wait for Tony to calm down by his own. 

______________

“Doll, come on, let’s go and catch up with everyone else,” Bucky insisted, leaning forward slowly with the intention of getting closer to Tony. Bad idea, Tony’s shrieking got louder as he started kicking the air and flailing his arms in frustration. A full-blown tantrum, great. 

“Tony, you’re going to hurt yourself and none of us are going to comfort you,” Steve warned. The three of them knew he was lying. Those kind of fits tended to end with Tony hitting himself unintentionally, and Steve was always the first one who rushed towards where Tony was to hold him in his arms and kiss away the pain. 

Tony’s screams worsened, and his little feet stop kicking the air and began kicking the stationary window next to him. “Jeez,” Bucky expressed, throwing himself backwards until he was lying on the floor just a few inches away from where Tony was. “Turn him off.”

“I still haven’t found the switch,” Steve joked as he looked down at him and smiled empathetically. Tony had been crying nonstop for about three hours, and both Bucky and Steve were on the edge. They understood Tony’s reaction, and they even were kind of expecting it, but it had already been too much. Steve even suspected that that plan everyone else had of going outside to explore the island was just an excuse to not be within range of Tony’s cries. 

“Do you think this was a mistake?” Bucky asked whispering, surely afraid Tony would hear him faltering. It wasn’t necessary, though. Tony heard nothing or no one when he was crying like that.

“No, just give him some time,” Steve assured, lying on his stomach on the sofa, eyes fixed on Tony to make sure he reacted fast if Tony seemed to do something that might hurt himself. 

Bucky copied him.

______________

 

"D-dad-da," Tony called between stuttering sobs, tugging Steve's pants. "Da-d-da." 

"What is it, sweetheart?" Steve answered, looking down at Tony. 

"wowe'," Tony said, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. Steve fought the urge to pick him up and help him to blow his nose. First, he wanted to make sure Tony had calmed down for real, otherwise Tony would continue the fit once he was settled on his lap and he would hurl something – like a bottle – at him as he had done to Bucky not long ago. 

"What?" 

"wowe'," Tony repeated, pointing at the window where the empty landing pad could be seen. "Go, wowe'." Steve took a deep breath and then he shook his head a little, unconsciously closing his eyes and wincing as he waited for Tony to resume his wails. It never happened. When Steve opened his eyes again, Tony had indeed begun to cry once more, but his sobs were a far cry from being the shrieks he was emitting before. 

“Come here, you little monster,” Steve said affectionately. He leaned forward and scooped Tony up, bringing him close to his chest right away. “Shh, it’s okay baby, it’s okay,” he soothed when Tony threw his arms around his neck, his sobbing spams intensifying. 

“N-no, w-wow-we’,” Tony managed to say. 

“We’re not going back to the tower, at least not now,” Steve informed, rubbing his hand up and down on Tony’s small back, “we came here to take some time off and relax, and we’re not leaving until we do that.”

“N-no, wow-we’,” Tony repeated. 

“Sorry baby, but as you can see, the jet left as soon as we got off, and Pepper’s going to send it back until next Wednesday, so we don’t really have an option,” Steve lied. That landing pad that could be seen through the windows wasn’t the only one, there was another one on the other side of the island, though there was no reason for Tony to know that there was where the jet was. One might think Steve and Bucky were being too paranoiac for deciding to hide that information from Tony, a baby thirty inches tall would never be capable of flying a plane by himself, but it was Tony, and anyone would be amazed by the things he managed to do when he combined his brain and technology, regardless of his size. 

“D-dad-a-a,” Tony begged. 

“No can do, baby, I’m afraid we’re stuck here for the next four days,” Steve informed, and his heart twitched when Tony began weeping pitifully. “Let’s go upstairs, you need a change,” he said, standing from the couch and patting Tony’s diapered-clad bottom. “You also need to apologize to Papa for poking him in the eye with the nipple of you bottle.”

______________

"Come here, sweetheart," Steve called, stretched arms as his hands opened and closed, encouraging Tony to walk closer to him. Tony shook his head and turned around to hide his face against Bucky's chest, his small hands looking for something to clutch, but Bucky was shirtless. 

"Go with dada, doll, the water temperature’s perfect," Bucky encouraged, petting Tony's head as he dangled his legs in the water. 

"No," Tony denied again, pressing his body as much as possible to Bucky's, as though he was trying to get further away from the edge of the pool where Bucky was currently sitting on. 

"Come on Tony, I brought all your bathtub toys, don't you want to play with them?" Steve suggested, turning on that little fountain Tony enjoyed getting him wet with during his baths. Tony kept shaking his head, Steve pursed his lips. 

Tony and water didn't mix well together, Steve was perfectly aware of that. At the beginning of these unexpected turn of events, Steve thought baths would be a problem – as far as he knew, Tony preferred to take showers instead of baths – but besides the fact that he unmistakably didn’t like the idea of not being allowed to bath himself, Tony had never shown any signs of being troubled by the water. He had even started playing with some of the bath toys Bucky had gotten for him, and the giggles he let out every now and then let Steve know he truly enjoyed bath time – Tony might have learned to fake tears and tantrums, however, Steve doubted he could fake giggles too. 

Based on that, Steve assumed there wouldn’t be no problem if Bucky and he took Tony to go for a swim in the pool. The indoor and outdoor pool – which perfectly matched with the minimalist design of the house and gave a peculiar feeling of serenity, freshness and cleanliness as everything else in there did – was so beautiful that Steve couldn’t think of anyone who wouldn’t feel like diving into it as soon as they saw it. Thus, when Tony had calmed down enough, Bucky and Steve changed into their swim trunks, put one of those swim diapers Pepper had kindly provided them with on Tony, and went down to the pool house. 

Unfortunately, Tony wasn’t so delighted with the idea.

“C’mon baby, let’s take advantage of the fact we have the pool for ourselves, once everyone else comes back, it’s not gonna be as quiet as it is now,” Steve insisted, moving closer to where Bucky and Tony were. 

“No,” Tony kept refusing. Steve looked up at Bucky with a questioning look on his face, wondering if Tony’s reluctance to get into the pool was because of his dislike for water or because of his habit of not wanting to do certain things just for the sake of contradicting them. Bucky shrugged, surely wondering the same thing. 

After considering it for a few minutes, Steve eliminated the distance between Bucky and him, placed his hands on Tony’s sides and lifted him, moving him away from Bucky. Tony squealed in surprised, and Steve could feel how his body tensed as he was plunged into the water, nearly up to his waist. 

“No! Papa!” Tony yelled, indecisive of what to do with his hands: reach for Bucky or cling to Steve, something that turned out to be difficult since Steve was shirtless too. 

“Shh, relax sweetheart, I’ve got you,” Steve soothed, bringing him closer to his chest so Tony could throw his arms around his neck. Tony immediately did that, “the water is perfect, isn’t it?” Tony shook his head fervently, legs trying to climb up his chest as if he wanted to get as far as possible from the water. “Take it easy, baby, nothing’s going to happen, dada’s got you,” Steve promised, patting his butt gently. 

“No, papa!” Tony called, looking for Bucky. 

“Papa’s right there,” Steve said, turning a bit around in order for tony to see him without having to twist his neck. Bucky smiled at them. Tony tried to reach for him, but Steve had walked a couple of steps away and Bucky was no longer within reach. “Look, don’t you want to play with your boat?” he suggested, pointing at the little boat that was floating near them, the one that had flickering lights and make funny noises when turned on. Tony continued shaking his head, a hand reaching for Bucky while his other arm was still hugging his neck. "Sweety, this is just like when you take a bath, try to relax." 

"No! PAPA!" 

"Papa's still there, he's not going anywhere." Steve said, and he heard the sound caused by someone diving into the water. 

"Actually, I'm right here," Bucky announced, swimming slowly towards them. "Hey, hey, take it easy doll, I'm here," he asked when Tony reached desperately for him. Steve let him take Tony from his arms. 

Yet, Tony didn’t calm down even with Bucky there. Once he was well settled against Bucky’s chest, arms surrounding his neck really tightly, Tony began demanding to be taken to the edge of the pool. They tried to distract him with all the toys around them, to encourage him to play volleyball and basketball with them, to ride one of the few pool float seats – the swim diapers had definitely not been everything Pepper had bought them – but Tony had rejected every idea emphatically, screaming at the top of his lungs if they made a slight attempt of pushing him away from their necks, the only thing he could cling to. 

“I guess this was _not_ a good idea,” Bucky commented while they walked to the corner of the pool, where the stairs were.

“I guess not,” Steve agreed, bouncing Tony slightly, action that felt a bit weird while being inside the water. “Shh, we’re getting out baby, don’t worry,” he reassured, and neither of them was surprised when Tony demanded to be put down and walked away from them as soon as they were out of the swimming pool.

If Tony couldn’t stand being in the water, coming to a beach house might not have been such a good idea. 

______________

“Tony, doll, you have to eat something, you haven’t eaten all day,” Bucky pleaded, moving the spoon closer to Tony’s mouth, but Tony dodged it for the umpteenth time. Bucky could easily take advantage and pop the spoon into his mouth when Tony opened it to try to choke back the sobs, thought that would certainly upset him more and they wanted to do the exact opposite of that. Besides, Bucky didn’t feel like being spit. 

“w-wow-e’.”

“What did he say?” Natasha asked, the expression on her face showing she didn’t have a clue what Tony had said. 

“He wants to go back to the tower,” Bucky clarified. 

“Oh my god, is he still crying because of that?” Natasha exclaimed, amazed. Bucky sighed, only Steve and he knew how long one of Tony’s tantrums could last. Though Bucky was sure Tony would set a new record if he continued like that. 

“Poppet, how about some pizza? Would you like a slice of pizza?” Bucky proposed, ignoring Steve’s look of disapproval. They were going to allow Tony to eat some pizza once he finished his porridge, so why would it matter if he offered Tony some before? He just wanted Tony to eat something. 

"So, throwing tantrums is for bratzilla here what working in the workshop is for adult Tony," Clint commented, mouth full. Phil slapped him on the back of the head. "Ouch!" he expressed a bit too dramatically, "what the hell Phil?!"

"Don't make things worse," Phil scolded, earning a glare from Clint and a chuckle from Natasha. 

"C'mon Tony, open up," Bucky begged once more, Tony slapped him hand away. 

"Let it go," Steve suggested from the other side of the table. "The more you insist, the less he would do it," he assured. Bucky could tell by the tone of his voice that Steve was as frustrated and exhausted as he was. Bucky took a deep breath.

"Come here, doll, let's wait for them in the living room," Bucky said as he stood up and lifted Tony from the highchair. There was no reason for them to stay in the kitchen if Tony wasn't going to eat. 

Feeling a bit edgy, he stepped out of the kitchen and walked towards the living room, failing to keep Tony still once he had sat down on one of the sofas. During all afternoon, Tony hadn't wanted to be held, and he squirmed so badly neither of them had no choice but to put him down. Tony’s mood had certainly worsened after the pool incident, and Steve and Bucky thought it correct to scold him for that. 

"Tony, you're gonna hurt yourself," Bucky warned, but it fell on deaf ears. Tony was completely focused on the task of pushing an end table towards the entrance door, only stopping his attempts when the sobs became too much to ignore. 

"Good thing we put away everything he could knock over," Steve commented, flopping onto the couch next to him. 

"This is not how I pictured this trip," Bucky confessed, subsiding into a slouch on the sofa. 

"Me neither." 

"I mean, I knew he was going to get angry, but I thought he would forget about it later." Bucky turned his head to look at Steve. He looked as defeated as Bucky felt.

“I pick the movie!” Clint proclaimed, suddenly entering the room, throwing himself on the loveseat beside them. A huge grin appearing on his face when he took possession of the remote.

“You know we can ask JARVIS to change the movie, don’t you?” Natasha asked deadpan. Bruce, Phil and she came from where Clint had come seconds ago. 

“No! JARVIS, you heard me! I call the movie first!” Clint complained, sounding way too whiney. 

“I’m afraid I’m obligated to do what the majority of you want, Agent Barton,” the A.I. informed. Clint’s grin turned into a very prominent pout. 

“Relax, you’re choosing the movie, Natasha’s just teasing you,” Phil assured as he sat down next to him.

Natasha pretended to take the remote away from Clint, and they struggled a little before Phil decided it was enough and took the remote away from them. 

“What’s he trying to do?” Bruce asked from the armchair, eyes fixed on Tony. 

“To push it toward the door so he can climb onto it and reach the panel,” Bucky explained, observing how Phil flipped through the movies there were available.

Bruce raised an eyebrow in confusion, “and how is he going to climb on it?” 

“Believe me, he always finds a way.”

Watching a movie while hearing the sound of the waves in the distance was definitely the best way to chill out before going to bed. A shame that having a baby crying in the background during all the movie caused the opposite reaction, and when Tony began tugging at everyone’s shorts and pants as he pointed at the door and sobbed uncontrollably, Bucky had to refrained himself with all is might from scooping him up and take him back to the tower himself. 

______________

Steve saw how Bucky leaned against the wall and slid his back down it until his bottom reached the floor, looking drained. It was the fourth time he tried to coax Tony into drinking some milk from his bottle, in the hope that that helped him to get to sleep, and it was also the fourth time he failed. Tony just wouldn’t listen to reason. They had swung him, rocked him, bounced him, offered him a pacifier, and Bucky had even sung to him, but nothing had worked. 

It was past midnight and Tony kept crying. And the worst part was that he wasn’t wailing as he tended to do when was in the middle of a fit, he was only sobbing, and that always disturb them more for some reason. 

“Is it possible that he’s sick or something?” Bucky proposed.

“I don’t think so,” Steve disagreed, looking how Tony crawled to the furthest corner of the crib and curled up into a small ball. There were no signs that made Steve believed Tony was sick. The way Tony glared at them was enough to prove he was still mad at them. "Tony, baby, come-"

"NO!" Tony screamed, interrupting him. 

"Would you two please stop making him yell? I need to sleep," Bruce said all of a sudden, walking closer to them. Steve had been to focused on Tony that he hadn't heard him entering, and by Bucky’s expression, Steve could tell he hadn't either. 

"We're sorry Bruce, we didn't know you could hear us." Bucky apologized. 

"The walls are not that thick, and my room is across this one," Bruce explained, leaning over the crib, "and you mister, you have a pretty good pair of lungs, you haven’t let me sleep at all," he said to Tony, patting him on the tight a couple of times. Tony shook off his hand. “Come here, you mister grumpypants,” he crooned, sliding his hands under Tony’s armpits and lifting him up. 

“If what you want is for him to be quiet, you shouldn’t do that,” Steve advised, wincing when Tony didn’t fail to meet his expectations. It was always a bit disconcerting how Tony could start wailing at any given moment.

Bruce looked as if Tony’s cries didn’t bother him at all, that habit of his of remaining calm no matter what due to the fear of transforming into the Hulk by accident truly came in handy in moments like these ones. What Bruce didn’t seem to be able to deal with was Tony’s wriggling, and Steve couldn’t blame him, that feeling of Tony slipping out of his hands was mortifying enough as it was to let it happen for real. 

“You sure are a wriggler,” Bruce affirmed as he made a beeline to the bed. He sat down on the edge of it, and placed Tony in front of him, who continued squirming even more when Bruce proceeded to unzip the front of his footed pajamas so he could remove them. 

“Bruce, what are you doing?” Steve asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Why would Bruce want to undress Tony down to his diaper?

“You’ll see.” That was Bruce’s only answer. Both Steve and Bucky turned to look at each other at the same time, and Steve saw the same baffled expression mirroring in Bucky’s face. 

Ignoring Tony’s protests and attempts to get him his pajamas back – he might accept that unfortunately, diapers weren’t optional, but that didn’t mean he liked to be just in diapers, especially if it was in front of people who weren’t Steve and Bucky – Bruce poured some oil from a small bottle he produced from his pocket and caught Tony’s left heel in one hand and used the other stroke his leg from the outside of his thigh down to his foot and then he started from the inside of his thigh and worked his way down, repeating each stroke several times. Tony tried to free his leg as he made Bruce know he didn’t like what he was doing by increasing the intensity of his cries, though Bruce’s grip firm. He only let go of Tony’s leg when he proceeded to do the same with the other one. 

Steve moved away from the crib and stood behind Bruce, while Bucky got off from the floor and sat on the bed across from him. There was not even the slightest doubt Bruce would hurt Tony, but Steve was ready to stop what he was doing if Tony looked like he was gotten angrier because of it. 

Surprisingly, that didn’t happen. 

After stroking Tony’s legs, Bruce cradled one of his feet in both hands and alternated pressing his thumbs one at a time from heal to toes, being careful not to tickle him. Tony kept fussing, but by the time Bruce began stroking his belly in a clockwise motion, he had stopped crying, and just let a sob out every now and then. He didn’t even complain when Bruce leaned a bit on him and used the fingertips of both hands to make small circular motions on his cheeks. That took Steve completely aback, Tony never allowed anyone to go near his cheeks, afraid they might pinch them. 

“You’re such a good boy, Tony,” Bruce praised as he rolled Tony onto his tummy. 

“What¬-” Bucky meant to ask, though Bruce placed his index over his mouth and shook his head a little. 

Using his fingertips again, Bruce traced tiny circles on both sides of Tony’s spine from the neck to his lower back. Tony raised his head and looked at Bruce for a few seconds, blinking more than usual. Was he really drifting off to sleep? 

When it was more than obvious that Tony was struggling to stay awake, Bruce retrieved the footed pajamas, dressed him in them again, scooped him up, and held him again his chest, bouncing him gently at the same time he hummed a lullaby. Tony squirmed a little, rubbed his eyes and nose with the back of his hands, face screwing up. Steve was afraid he was going to start crying once more, but he settled as soon as Bruce cradled his head and stood up from the bed so he could rock him. 

“Where did you learn that?” Bucky questioned once he was sure Tony was deeply asleep, his face showing how shocked he was. Neither of them had been able to get Tony to sleep like Bruce just had. They always had to wait for the tantrum to stop, since attempting to soothe Tony while he was still mad always turned out to be worse. 

“Well, let’s just say that the Internet can be a very helpful tool for parents,” Bruce hinted, rubbing his thumb against the small of Tony’s back. “I guess Tony’s sleeping with me tonight,” he informed.

“What? Why? You don’t have to do that, you’ve already been awake more than necessary, just put him down in the crib and we’ll take care of the rest. I’m sure he’s going to sleep through the night now,” Steve hurried to say. Besides the fact that he didn’t want to burden Bruce with something that was not his responsibility – also, Steve knew Bruce wasn’t all that comfortable around Tony now around because of the Hulk – the thought of not being there with Tony made him anxious. 

“Look, he’s clearly upset with both of you, and you know how stubborn he is, if he wakes up and see any of you, it’s very likely that he’ll restart the tantrum,” Bruce pointed out. “I really think it would be better for you to stay away from him at least for the night, just in case. I don’t mind looking after him.” 

Both Bucky and Steve took some minutes to consider what Bruce had said, and couldn’t find a valid argument to go against it. Bruce was right, the more they tried to reconcile with Tony, the more he tended to get upset. They needed to give him some space if they wanted him to calm down enough for him to enjoy their stay, otherwise he would keep demanding them to take him back to the tower. 

“I guess he’s right,” Bucky agreed, getting on his feet and approaching him, “we’ll sleep somewhere else, who knows how many rooms are still unoccupied, but don’t hesitate to tell us if you two need something,” he offered before pressing a kiss to Tony’s head. “Come on Steve, we need to rest too.”

A bit hesitantly, Steve walked out of the nursery behind Bucky, not without brushing a kiss over Tony’s cheek before. He had been looking after baby Tony for so long that going away from him felt just weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought that Butterfingers was another of Tony's robots, but I was doing some research and according to what I found, it turns out that it's just another nickname for DUM-E. If I'm mistaken, please let me know. 
> 
> I started this chapter like a month ago, but I just hadn't had much free time lately. Yesterday we were awaken at midnight by an earthquake (supposely 8.2 Ritcher Scale, which is the strongest I've every experienced) and I just couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to write to get distracted. 
> 
> It got a little bit longer than I had expected, so I decided to split it in two chapter, hopefully it won't take me too much time to upload the next part, I'm already working on it. 
> 
> I also wanted to highlight that Steve and Bucky always tried to do what they think is better for Tony, even if is sometimes look like they kind of take the wrong decision. Tony was too upset in his chapter, but I guess that after all the time he had stayed as a baby, his level of frustration (even if he's also kind of getting used to it) is getting higher. I don't know, I guess I'm just rambling now. 
> 
> Please, if you saw any unforgivable grammar or spelling mistake, please let me know. Sometime I think I know the words, but my pronunciation sucks, so I don't spell them correctly, and I end up using a complete different word n_n'
> 
>  
> 
> **By the way, does anyone know what I have to do in order to avoid having the notes from the last chapter shown in this one as well? I don't know why they show up in here too, but I couldn't find how to delete them :s**


	3. Beach House: Part Two

“Would you stop that, please?” Bucky demanded, clearly annoyed by how Steve kept drumming his fingers on the table. 

"I'm going to go and check on him," Steve announced. He tried to stand up, but Bucky hurried to push him back on the chair. 

"He's okay," Bucky assured, pushing his chair closer to the table. 

"What if he woke up during the night?" Steve insisted. 

“He didn't.” 

“What if he threw a fit and Bruce transformed into the Hulk out of frustration?” Steve continued. 

“Bruce didn't hulk out.”

“What if –,”

“Would you stop that already?” Bruce interrupted him, sounding a bit exasperated. “Tony didn't throw any fit. They both had a good night sleep. Chances are they're still sleeping at this hour and if you go there you'll only wake them up.” 

“How can you know that?” Steve asked, not ready to believe Bucky’s words yet. 

“Because the house couldn't have been more quiet last night. Don't you think we would've heard something if any of the things you're speculating about had happened? Or that JARVIS would've notified us if there had been something wrong?” Bucky reasoned.

Steve's lip pursed, unable to refute his friend's reasoning. Deep down he knew Tony was perfectly fine, and that was exactly what was troubling him: Tony was okay, without him. 

"So, relax and stay right where you are or help me cook breakfast. They'll probably won't wake up for a couple of hours more," Bucky said, making a bee line to the stove, where some eggs and beacon waited to be cooked. 

Steve folded his hands on the table and rested his head on them, not in the mood of doing nothing. It was in these moments where he regretted having being injected with the serum, otherwise, he would be still asleep instead of being there fighting back the urge to go and check on Tony. 

“So, it’s a father-son thing, huh?” Bruce asked suddenly, stepping into the kitchen. Steve lifted his head off his arms almost immediately, and let out a big sigh of relief after having seen Tony settled in Bruce’s arms, sound and safe. “You’re the ones who caused Tony to get into the habit of waking up this early,” he accused, rubbing his thumb against the small of Tony’s back. 

“Well, he insists on sleeping with one of us at least five times a week, and neither of us need as much rest as you do, so we’re usually up before dawn,” Bucky explained, cracking an egg into a pan. “No matter how careful and quiet we are, he always wakes up as soon as he senses us getting out of bed.” 

“He usually goes back to sleep after a while, though,” Steve commented as he got up from the chair. He walked closer to Bruce with the intention of taking Tony in his arms, but stopped dead halfway through when Tony screwed his face up at him before hiding it in the crook of Bruce's neck, unable to decipher how that reaction had made him feel. A drowsy Tony only let either Bucky or Steve close, so why hadn't Tony reached for him as soon as he saw him? 

"He's still mad at us, give him some space," Bucky whispered in his ear after he materialized next to him, a hand on his shoulder preventing him from moving forward. 

"But–," Steve argued. If Tony was still angry, then they should talk about it and make things right, shouldn’t they? 

"What's for breakfast?" Bruce asked, evidently trying not to focus on the Tony issue. He shook his head slightly, letting Steve know he agreed with Bucky, Tony needed to be left alone for the time being. 

Steve sighed in disappointment.

______________

Tony had gone back to sleep as predicted. Bruce only had to rock him a little to send him right straight back to dreamland. The fact that Tony had gotten used to wake up early, didn't mean he got up at that hour. He obviously wanted to stay awake, but his body required more rest, so after some warm formula and some cooing, Bucky or Steve put Tony down on his crib and he would remain there for two or three more hours. 

“Should we take him back to the tower?” Steve asked three hours later, after he had gone to Tony’s nursery and he had rejected him yet once more. Bruce had been the one who had lifted him out of the crib. 

“Let's see how things flow today and then we’ll decide,” Bucky replied, pretending to be paying attention to the cup of coffee in front of him, but he didn't fool Steve. Bucky, as well as him, was looking at Tony out of the corner of his eye, worried about the possibility of him throwing a tantrum as Bruce had been insisting to bottle feed him for the last fifteen minutes. Tony clearly didn’t want to.

“Come on Tony, your stomach is growling, you’re clearly hungry,” Bruce insisted, but Tony kept shaking his head as he pointed at the living room, where the door which leaded to the landing pad was. Ever since he had woken up, he had resumed his demands to be taken back to the tower. “I already took you outside and you saw the jet’s not here yet.”

“No, go,” Tony refused.

“And how do you expect us to leave the island with no jet? I can’t fly, none of us can’t,” Bruce pointed out, caressing Tony’s abdomen. He shouldn’t have said that, though, because that only reminded Tony he could fly with the help of his suit, a suit that he couldn’t use now. “Hey, hey buddy, take it easy,” he hurried to say when Tony began tearing up, “it’s not that I don’t want to take you back, it’s just that there’s no way we can leave the island until the jet arrives.”

“Indeed,” Steve agreed. “And I talked to Pepper when I woke up, she’s sending the jet as soon as she can,” he lied, if they decided to go back home, there was no need to stress Tony more. 

“You see, the jet might arrive any time now, and you haven’t finished having breakfast.” Bruce went along with Steve, lifting Tony a little so he could stand on his lap and be closer to his eyes level. Tony looked at him with a confused eyebrow raised. “You know it’s a terrible idea to fly on an empty stomach, and you little guy haven’t eaten anything since yesterday,” he lectured, poking his tummy accusatorily.

“No tue,” Tony claimed, pushing away Bruce’s index finger. 

“Of course it is, you might have flown in your suit with nothing but coffee in your stomach plenty of times and experienced no discomfort whatsoever, but you know this body isn’t as resilient as your adult body, so, believe me, you don’t want to get on the jet with an empty stomach,” Bruce warned, face serious. 

Tony stared at him, the tip of a finger plunged inside his mouth as he squirmed slightly, clearly trying to decide whether what Bruce had said was true or not. Steve felt Bucky’s body tensing a bit, Tony tended to react badly when he suspected he was being lied to for the sake of justifying why he wasn't allowed to do something. 

When Tony stamped his feet on Bruce's thighs, Steve winced, waiting for Tony to start wailing, but he never did. Instead, he sat down again on Bruce's lap and allowed him to plop the nipple of the bottle into his mouth. 

It would turn out to be true that Tony’s temper tantrums were directed personally at Bucky and Steve.

______________

“Why don’t we go down to the beach? We’ll be able to make out the jet more easily from there,” Bruce had suggested, and to Steve’s and Bucky’s surprised, Tony had agreed. None of them couldn’t help thinking Tony’s answer would have been another one if they had been the ones who made that proposition. 

Tony didn’t complain when Bruce changed him into his bathing suit, nor when he gathered some of the beach toys there were in a chest in the nursery – something that clearly showed Bruce’s intention wasn’t exactly going to wait for the jet – but he did complain, whine and wriggle when Bucky approached him and applied sunscreen to all his skin, reaching for Bruce all the time. 

In the beach, Tony had made sure to let them know two things: he didn’t want to be closer to the water nor to Bucky and Steve. That had been why both of them had sat in some beach benches that were several feet away from where Bruce had sat down, cross-legged with Tony between his legs. Bucky had observed from the distance how Bruce had started playing with a bucket and a shovel trying to encourage Tony to do the same, and how Tony had completely ignored him, pushing away any toy that Bruce handed him while he kept his eyes fixed on the sky. 

Steve had wanted to go and get Tony after a while, arguing he would get really mad when he realized he had been lied to and the promised jet would never arrive, but Bucky stopped him from doing so, as he had been doing all morning long. If Tony seemed to be calm down, Bucky saw no reason to bother him, it was better to let him be. Bucky totally understood how Steve felt, he himself was uneasy due to the fact that Tony was still angry at them and refused to talk to them, but he also knew Tony would only get angrier if they insisted on encouraging him to make up with them. 

“Dude, seriously, stop pouting,” Bucky ordered, hitting Steve’s leg with his.

“What? I’m not pouting!” Steve assured, sounding offended. 

“Yes, you are. Your face’s a replica of Tony’s when we tell him he can’t have any coffee,” Bucky pointed out, Steve’s pout worsened. “Relax, Steve, he’ll come around,” he promised as he sat back in the bench. 

“It doesn’t look like that,” Steve disagreed, pointing at Bruce and Tony. Who knew how, but Bruce had convinced Tony to play with him, and over the last fifteen minutes, he had been focused on building a sandcastle, one that no normal kid of his age would have never been able to build. “What if he doesn’t want to talk to us anymore?”

Bucky raised an eyebrow at him, “you know you’re being too overdramatic, don’t you?”

“And you’re too okay with this,” Steve accused, folding his arms over his chest. 

“I’m not okay, but I told you we need to give him some space.”

______________

Tony was crying, and the fact that he couldn’t comfort him was killing Steve. No, that wasn’t quite right. What was killing Steve was that Tony seemed perfectly fine with Bruce being the one soothing him. 

Generally, Tony reached for either Bucky or Steve when there was something wrong, eager to be cuddled by them, but when the volleyball had landed right in the middle of the fortress Tony had built, Tony had burst into tears, owed to its destruction as much as how sudden and unexpected everything had been. Steve hadn’t hesitated to run toward him right away, glad Bucky had come along instead of stopping him, and he had felt awful when Tony rejected him for the third time that day. 

“I’m so sorry, Tony, I swear it was an accident,” Clint apologized, crouched down in front of Bruce. “I thought Phil would catch it.”

“Don’t blame it on me, I told you to stop hitting the ball that hard, I’m not as agile as you and Natasha are,” Phil complained. 

“Both of you are to blame,” Natasha declared with a bored expression on her face. “We weren’t even keeping a score, I don’t know why you were even trying to make each other lose.” 

“What’s the point on playing if no one’s gonna win?” Clint argued, looking up at her.

“Having fun?” Natasha replied with a tone of voice that indicated how obvious the answer was. 

“It’s more fun when there’s a winner,” Clint exclaimed. 

“Shhh, take it easy buddy, I’ll help you to build your castle again, and this time it’s going to be bigger and better,” Bruce promised as he bounced Tony gently. Tony shook his head, still sobbing. “No? Well, I’ll help you to build whatever you want.”

"Do you want to go inside, sweetheart?" Steve proposed, and he couldn’t help feeling disappointed when Tony didn't even bother to shake his head, he just clung tighter to Bruce's t-shirt and turned his face away from him. Bucky squished his forearm in sympathy. 

"Why don't you come and play with us?" Clint suggested to the four of them, rubbing Tony's back, "that way there would be six of us and we'd be able to play volleyball properly." Steve could see Natasha rolling her eyes. 

______________

Of course Tony had agreed to play with them, and Steve bet his shield he was only doing it to annoy Bucky and him somehow. 

First, Tony only observed, throwing the ball at them whenever it landed near him. Halfway through the game, Clint picked him up and carried him on his shoulders, and even if Tony had been afraid that Clint dropped him by accident – Clint did complain of how hard Tony was pulling his hair in his attempts to hold onto something – it wasn’t long before he relaxed and let his hands free in order to try to hit the ball. 

Steve experienced a tiny heart attack every time he saw Clint running towards the ball and positioned himself in a way Tony ended up right under where it was heading, afraid it hit Tony right in the face. Phil had changed the volleyball for a beach ball once it was decided Tony would play, but still it was better to avoid any injury, especially when they were miles away from civilization. 

“Eat that, suckers!” Clint screamed after Natasha scored one more time. The fact that both Bucky and Steve were not giving their best in the game because they didn’t want to hit Tony by accident in the process went absolutely unnoticed by him – or he didn't mind, after all, he tended to be very competitive. 

“Watch your language, there’s a kid here,” Phil scolded. Steve had noticed Phil found it hard to accept that Tony was the baby Clint had on his shoulders, perhaps because he hadn’t spent as much time with him as everybody else had. 

“You mean Tony? This adorable and cute baby who gives me the finger every time I say something he doesn’t like?” Clint remarked, wincing when Tony smacked him in the head. 

“Tony!” Steve scolded, and he wanted to scoop that word back up as soon as it had fallen out of him, because he knew he was going to be ignored. And Steve was indeed. Tony didn’t even bother to look at him before he smacked Clint a couple of times more. 

______________

Phil was a mermaid. Or rather, he looked like a mermaid. Clint was far from being an artist, but when it came to do a mischief, he had proven to be very artistic. Bucky didn’t know why or how Phil had been convinced to let himself be bury up to his neck in the sand, Steve and he had gotten away from all of them when the volleyball game finished, but from the distance Bucky could tell Phil was regretting his decision now that Clint began to sculpt two protuberant boobs in front of him. 

“I think we should go back home,” Steve said after a long period of silence, index finger drawing circles in the sand. 

Bucky’s lips twitched as he turned to look at him with a questioning eyebrow raised. “How come?”

“Because that’s what he wants to.”

“Haven’t you noticed he hasn’t asked to go back to the tower ever since breakfast?” Bucky pointed out. “I know you don’t like the fact that he’s deliberately ignoring us, but whether he seems to be having fun because he really is or because he’s trying to makes us feel bad somehow, I don’t know, I think we should wait until tonight to make that decision, as we’d agreed.” Steve screwed up his face, but said nothing. 

Returning his focused on the others once more, Bucky cracked a smiled when his eyes lay on Tony. If Clint was working on making Phil’s new boobs more realistic, Tony was doing the same with the tail, drawing circular lines so they looked like scales as he giggled. 

If Tony was behaving the way he was due to being mad at them, he was doing a pretty good job pretending, because he usually disliked to spend too much time with anyone who wasn’t Steve or him. Though, Bucky felt Tony was enjoying himself for real, and that was perfectly fine with him. They had decided to go there with the intention of helping Tony to get distracted and have a good time. Therefore, they should be glad since, apparently, their goal was somehow being achieved, even if they weren’t allowed to be a part of it. 

“I’m gonna go inside,” Steve informed as he stood up. 

“What? Why?” Bucky asked, looking up at him.

“There’s no point of staying here, besides, it’s lunch time, I might as well make myself useful and cook something,” Steve stated, already walking back the house. Bucky hesitated for a second, but he ended up getting up from the ground and walking behind him. 

“You know, Tony wasn’t the only one who needed some time off, we did too,” Bucky commented. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, we could –,” 

“Code brown, dada and papa! Code brown!” Clint screamed from behind, interrupting Bucky. Both Steve and he turned around and saw Clint running towards them, carrying Tony with his arms extended, as if he was trying to keep him as far as possible from him. “Code brown!” Clint stopped right in front of them, panting.

“What?” Bucky asked, confused. He looked down at Tony, and he wasn’t surprised to see a scowl on his face as he hung awkwardly from Clint’s hands. 

“Code brown, here, take him,” Clint said, carefully pushing Tony towards him, and Bucky had no choice but to take Tony in his arms. Bucky didn’t need to ask Clint to explain what he meant, the smell told him all too well that Tony needed to be changed.

______________

“’imme,” Tony demanded, his small hand reaching for the s’more Clint was about to put into his mouth. 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to eat that, Tony,” Bruce commented, placing an arm around Tony’s waist to refrain him from getting up from his lap. 

A big pout appeared on Tony face. “’imme,” he insisted.

“But it might give you a stomachache,” Bruce warned, Tony shook his head enthusiastically. 

“No, ‘imme.” 

Bruce’s lip pursed and turned to look at Steve, an unvoiced question left hanging in the air. He had been looking after Tony all day, but just as he had asked them if they thought it was okay to take Tony with him to sit by the campfire Clint insisted all afternoon on building once the sun started to go down, it was clear that Bruce was more comfortable with them being the ones who took those kind of decisions. 

Steve thought about it for some seconds before nodding slightly. They had been allowing Tony to eat more and more sweets and not such healthy food lately, so some crackers and marshmallows didn’t seem to be that bad. Besides, Steve was afraid Tony was going to get angrier at him if he didn’t let him get what he wanted. 

“’imme,” Tony said again, slapping Bruce’s forearm to attract his attention. 

“Okay, okay, just wait a minute,” Bruce asked, already reaching for a stick and a marshmallow, which he put on the stick and held it over the fire. 

“Me!” Tony demanded, trying to get the stick from Bruce’s hand. Bruce looked at Steve once more, and allowed Tony to hold the stick after Steve nodded for a second time. 

“This is awesome! We should move in here,” Clint expressed. 

“So we can hear you complain about how sandy you get every day?” Natasha remarked, examining the sausage she had been roasting as if she was deciding whether it was ready to eat or not.

“Or how troublesome it would be to get to SHIELD’s headquarters from here?” Phil added. 

“Or how annoying sunburns are?” Natasha continued. 

“And how hot it can be.”

“Okay! Stop it! I get it!” Clint barked. 

Both Natasha and Phil smiled, and Bruce chuckled while he grabbed a couple of crackers and a piece of chocolate. The marshmallow Tony was roasting was going to be ready soon, and Tony was already eager to eat it. Steve thought Tony would throw a tantrum when he found out his mouth was not big enough to be able to fit the s’more in, though he seemed perfectly fine with allowing Bruce cutting small pieces and feed him with them. 

______________

Bruce sighed heavily as he turned around and fixed his eyes on Tony’s small figure. He was deeply asleep next to him, laying on his stomach, a barely audible snore coming from his slightly open mouth. Bruce had had to push his bed to the corner to prevent Tony from falling off it, as he had refused to sleep in his crib and had insisted on sleeping with him. 

Coming to the beach house had been a good idea. Bruce had been a bit reluctant at the beginning, but after three days of going to bed and waking up with the sound of the waves in the background, he wondered why he hadn’t wanted to come in the first place. 

However, there was just one thing that was bothering a him little: he didn’t know how to handle the Tony situation anymore. Bruce certainly didn’t mind looking after him, Tony was able to be very nice and cute when he wanted to – as well as a real handful when he was fussy and in a bad mood – Tony had truly been a good boy during all the time he had been under Bruce’s watch. And if Bruce had to take care of him for the rest of their trip, he had no objection to that whatsoever. 

What was troubling him was the fact that he couldn’t help noticing how excluded Steve and Bucky were feeling. They did look content to see Tony enjoying himself after how disastrous their first day had been, but as much as they tried to hide it, Bruce could tell they felt bad every time Tony turned his head away, ignored them or pushed them away. He understood why Tony was mad at them, and he understood why Bucky and Steve decided to bring Tony against his will. 

Though Bruce didn’t think Tony would be mad at them for much longer. Yesterday, he had noticed the way Tony looked at Steve and Bucky whenever they walked away after he rejected him, there was longing in his eyes. Bruce might have as well encouraged Tony to talk to them, but he figured this was the kind of situation where he shouldn’t intervene. Tony had the tendency of doing the opposite of what he was told, and that tendency only increased when he was turned into a baby. It was better to keep himself at bay, and wait for things to work out on their own.

Slowly, so he didn’t wake Tony up, Bruce sat up and leaned against the headboard. A glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand confirmed him the sunrise was still hours away, but he didn’t feel sleepy anymore. Tony had gone to bed around eight o’clock the previous night, and Bruce had kept him company while he fell asleep. He hadn’t meant to turn in that early, but all had been so quiet and dark, that Bruce had fallen asleep without realizing it. 

Deciding it wouldn’t be advisable to leave the bed or the room while Tony was still asleep, he opened the drawer of the nightstand and took a book out. Maybe if he read a bit, he would feel sleepy again. He turned the lamp on carefully, and make sure to dim the light so that it didn’t bother Tony, but when he glanced at him to make sure he hadn’t woken him up before he started reading, his eyes met Tony’s. 

“Hey buddy,” Bruce greeted, whispering, “go back to sleep, it’s not time to wake up yet .” 

Tony didn’t answer. After blinking for a couple of times, he lifted his head and looked around the room as though he was searching for something. Bruce observed him confused, and hurried to lift him and pull him closer to his chest as soon as Tony screwed up his face and his eyes began to fill up with tears. 

“Hey kiddo, shh, it’s okay,” Bruce soothed, bouncing Tony a little when a sob escaped from his throat. “What’s the matter, Tony? Do you need a change?” he asked. Steve had once mentioned that Tony sometimes woke up crying because he disliked wearing a soiled diaper, but when Bruce placed a hand on his diapered butt, Bruce could tell the diaper was still dry. “Did you have a nightmare? Is that it? Don’t worry kiddo, I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you.” Tony shook his head. “Then what’s the matter?” Bruce questioned. 

Tony remained quiet for several minutes before saying with a tiny voice, “dada.”

“Dada? Do you want to go with Steve and Bucky?” Bruce suggested, rubbing his thumb against the small of Tony’s back. Tony nodded shyly, slipping his thumb into his mouth.

______________

“There’s nothing good on the TV,” Steve complained, flipping through the channels.

“Well, it’s three o’clock in the morning, people are usually sleeping at this hour, not watching TV,” Bucky commented, sounding bored. 

“But this is cable TV, there are supposed to be good programs at any time,” Steve said as he slouched on the couch.

“There were some movies that looked interesting,” Bucky pointed out. 

“I’ve already seen them,” Steve lied. The truth was, he didn’t even feel like watching TV. The only reason he had turned it on had been because there weren’t a lot of things he could do at such hour. 

“What are their names?” Bucky asked, looking at him suspiciously. 

“I’ve never been good at remembering names.”

“Clint’s right, you two do sound like an old married couple,” Bruce commented as he stood next to them, startling them a little. “What are you doing up so late?” 

“What are _you_ doing up lo late?” Steve asked, sitting up. “Is there something wrong?” Bruce shook his head, “So?” Bruce fixed his eyes on Tony, who las looking at him timidly, a hand clutching Bruce’s t-shirt. 

Steve fought back the urge to reach for him. Over the last two days, he had gotten the fact that Tony wouldn’t talk to Bucky or him into his head, at least not until they went back to the tower. It still bothered him, but he had to accept that Bucky was right: as long as Tony seemed to be having a good time, they would stay there for as long as they had previously planned and they would try not to harass him a lot. If he didn’t want them around, they would do their best to respect that. 

“Dada,” Tony called with a tiny voice, eyes expressing a certain fear. Steve hesitated for some seconds, his mind struggling trying to decide whether it was a good idea to reach for Tony or not. He turned to look at Bucky wanting advise, though Bucky shrugged his shoulders. Slowly, extended his arms and placed his hands on Tony’s sides, and a warm feeling spread all over his body when Tony didn’t try to get away from him. 

“He woke up and asked for you,” Bruce informed, allowing Steve to take Tony from his arms. “Good thing that you two were awake.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if we hadn’t been awake,” Steve said, enjoying how Tony snuggled into him, “Tony knows he can wake up us at any hour if he needs us.”

And Tony could indeed. He could throw tantrums, get mad at him and push him away, he could even reject him once more tomorrow morning, but Steve would lie if he said he wouldn’t receive Tony with arms wide open when he finally calmed down and came back to him. And Steve was certain Bucky would do the same. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it did take me a lot of time to update this story. I haven't had a lot of time to write, and I also had been focusing more on the other story I'm currently writing. So, sorry for the delay. 
> 
> If you saw any spelling or grammar mistakes, please let me know :)


	4. Mustache

“Tony, please stop moving,” Steve heard Bucky saying as he stepped into the bedroom, a sport drink in hand.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked before taking the last sip of his beverage, but Bucky didn’t answer.  
By the way Steve saw his back moving he could tell Bucky was struggling to do whatever it was that he was doing. Tony tended to squirm a lot, especially when he was asked not to.

Shrugging, Steve decided it was better not to intervene. If Tony wasn't throwing a tantrum – and Steve was sure Tony wasn't having one now because he was just whining and not wailing – it was better to let Bucky deal with him. Tony didn't like it when it was the two of them against him. Besides, Steve had been training all morning, so he wanted to take a shower before doing anything else. 

"I'm gonna take a shower," Steve announced, walking slowly towards the bathroom to give Bucky enough time to ask for his assistance in case he needed it, though Bucky continued sitting on the bed with his back towards him, asking Tony to stay put. 

Steve got undressed, stepped into the shower and a moan escaped from his throat when the water hit his body. JARVIS knew exactly how to regulate the temperature of the water so it was always perfect. After a few minutes of simply standing under the stream of water, Steve reached for the washcloth, lathered it up and started scrubbing, though halfway through he heard Tony start crying. That automatically shorten his time in the shower. Even if Steve knew Bucky was more than capable of handling Tony, he got very anxious if he didn’t do anything about it. 

Only five minutes later, Steve was already coming out of the bathroom. 

“What’s going on? Why are you crying sweetheart? What’s your mean papa doing to you?” Steve asked as he towel dried his washed hair. Blaming someone else always helped to mitigate whatever the problem was. 

Bucky sighed heavily. “Look what your son did,” he said, picking up a sobbing Tony and placing him on Steve’s lap as soon as Steve sat down on the bed next to him. Steve wrapped an arm around Tony’s waist to prevent him from crawling away, and it took him several seconds to realize what Bucky had meant. Tony had a mustache and a goatee drawn on his face, very similar to the one he had when was an adult. “Oh yes, he used a permanent marker,” Bucky clarified when Steve rubbed a finger on Tony’s chin and the ink didn’t get off. 

“Oh my God, Tony, why on earth did you do this?” Steve questioned, but Tony didn’t bother to reply, he just pushed his hand away and began squirming trying to free himself from Steve’s embrace, crying a bit louder when Steve refused to lose his grip on him. 

“Well, according to JARVIS, Tony was trying to videoconference with Pepper,” Bucky explained, handing him a small and wet towel with a faded black stain on it. He must have been using it to lift the ink from Tony’s skin, unsuccessfully. 

“What? Why?”

“Today’s the day when the new phone prototype’s gonna be shown, and Tony’s always been the one who introduces the new products, so I guess he was trying to do that,” Bucky speculated, lying on the bed with a tired expression on his face, “I shouldn’t have left him alone when he was using my phone, but I was hungry and went to the kitchen to fix myself something to eat. If JARVIS hadn’t hung up, I don’t know what would’ve happened.” 

“Tony, is that true? Were you trying to do what your papa just said?” Steve asked, earning a smack from a still sobbing Tony. That only verified Bucky’s theory. “Jesus, Tony, what were you thinking? Did you really think they wouldn’t notice how changed you are?” he pointed out. Tony took some minutes to calm down enough to point at his chin with a trembling hand. Steve’s heart melted. “Oh my god, you’re so cute,” he said as he brought Tony closer to his chest to give him a hug and press several kisses to his pouty face. 

There was no doubt Steve would pay for using the C word to refer to Tony, but he couldn’t have cared less about it right then. He wasn’t sure whether Tony realize it or not, but sometimes the things he came up with made him look so tenderly childish, even if he was trying to do the exact opposite. A warm and ticklish sensation surged in the pit of Steve’s stomach every time that happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter. I just came up with this when I got bored in the office. I wasn't even planning on writing at all.


	5. Beard

“Okay, that’s it, give it back now,” Bucky ordered, getting up from the couch and walking towards Tony. He leaned over and took his smartphone from Tony’s hands. 

“No!” Tony said, reaching for the phone with both hands, but Bucky put it in his pocket right away. Tony stamped his feet a couple of times before dropping to the floor on his diapered butt, and he start to wail at the top of his lungs. 

“Oh no, no, no, stop that right now, you know perfect well you’re just allowed two use it for two hours,” Bucky stated as he sat down on the sofa again, determined not to give in. He had gotten tired of waiting for Tony to hand him the smartphone himself. To be fair, Tony had stood up a second after Bucky had told him the time was up, but he had walked so slowly that, after thirty minutes, he still hadn’t reached Bucky, and they were only a few feet away. 

“’imme!” Tony demanded, a small and chubby hand pointing at Bucky’s pocket. Bucky shook his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. “’IMME!”

“Don’t yell at me,” Bucky asked, though that only made Tony cry louder. 

Bucky cringed. The scene in front of him had repeated itself every single day – once or twice, sometimes more – for the last week, and it was beginning to get on his nerves.

Truth be told, Bucky had gotten out of the habit of dealing with tantrums. Steve and he had agreed to give Tony some more freedom, and so, over the last three weeks, they had left Tony do as he wished – within the range of boundaries set to prevent Tony from getting harmed, of course. As long as Tony’s basic needs were correctly and completely fulfilled, Steve and Bucky tried not to stick their noses into Tony’s business. As a result, Tony had stopped throwing fits for every trifle, and he just lost his temper when he was truly frustrated. 

However, the fact that Tony seemed to have started misbehaving once more wasn't what was bothering Bucky, but rather the reason why Tony was doing that. 

Steve and Bucky had gone on a mission only once since Tony had been turned into a baby, and they had decided not to go to another one until Tony was changed back after finding out how he had reacted when they had left. Fury had respected their decision, and their presence hadn’t been required ever since. But then Loki had shown up, and he had refused to change Tony back to normality, which made this whole situation indefinitely permanent. Fury began arguing he couldn’t afford to have two super soldiers benched for who knew how long, and he ended up talking them into agreeing to go on missions once in a while, one at a time so they didn’t have to leave Tony completely alone. 

Last week, they had got a call from SHIELD, and Steve had been away on a mission since then. The exact same day when Tony’s bad behavior had started. Tony denied it, and he got very grumpy when Bucky suggested such a thing, but Bucky was sure Tony was acting the way he was because he missed Steve.

They might have given Tony more space, and he was obviously enjoying it, though that didn’t mean Tony didn’t want to spend time with them at all. There were plenty of things that Tony preferred to do by himself, but there were also other things Steve and Bucky had noticed he liked it when they did them for him. 

Tony didn’t let them feed him, but he had no problem with letting them hold the bottle while he drank from it. He hated when they tried to make him take a nap, but he loved to be bounced by them when he realized he was too sleepy to stay awake. He didn’t want to be scrubbed when taking a bath, but he got grumpy if they didn’t play with him while he was in the bathtub – games whose only objective was getting them wet, of course. He disliked it when they pet him and caress him so frequently, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he enjoyed an occasional hug, especially when he was feeling a little blue. And at night, Tony wouldn’t go to bed if a story wasn’t read to him. By both of them. 

So, it had started that night, when Bucky had been the only one who read to him; and little by little, Bucky began to notice how Tony pouted when he was the only one who showed up, or when he did the things Steve was usually in charge of; until he reached the point where he was now: losing it over everything.

That was what was bothering Bucky. Tantrums? He could definitely deal with them. What he couldn’t deal with was the fact he couldn’t do anything to prevent them, even if he knew what caused them. He couldn’t make Steve come home, and he couldn’t do anything to soothe Tony as he wouldn’t allow it. 

Bucky sighed heavily after several minutes, when he realized Tony wasn’t planning on calming down any time soon. He stood up and walked closer to him once more. “Come here, you little monster,” he said with no real heat as he bended over and picked Tony up. Tony kept crying, but he also curled in the crook of Bucky’s arm, melting into his body.

_______________

“Seriously? You go away for ten days and you come back looking like a tramp?” Bucky mocked, stretching his arm so he could hold a lock of Steve’s hair in his hand.

“You know my hair grows too fast,” Steve said a bit irritatingly, pushing Bucky’s hand away. It had been one of the changes he had experienced after having been injected with the serum. The only reason he always looked so impeccable was because he shaved every day and got a haircut frequently. “You’re one to talk,” he pointed out, pulling one of Bucky’s wisps of hair. 

“I don’t mind having long hair,” Bucky claimed, shrugging. “You’re the one who wants to get a haircut every single week. And what’s the deal with the beard?”

“It’s not like I could stop to shave during the mission,” Steve pointed out, taking a hand to his chin to caress his beard. “I don’t like having long hair, but I think I’m keeping the beard, what do you think?”

“Well, now you’ll look like the old guy you are,” Bucky sneered, Steve pushed him to move him out of his way. Bucky laughed. 

“Where is he?” Steve asked, and there was no doubt Bucky knew he was referring to Tony. 

“He’s taking a nap… hey, hey, hey, no!” Bucky ordered as soon as he read Steve’s intention, grabbing him by the arm, “don’t wake him up, it was an odyssey to get him to sleep.”

“Oh, c’mon, I haven’t seen him in more than a week, I missed him,” Steve complained, lips pursing. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t enjoyed being on the battlefield once more, but it was also truth that he had felt extremely homesick, anxious for not knowing how Tony was, and afraid he hadn’t even noticed his absence. 

“And he missed you too, but wait until he wakes up to greet him,” Bucky asked with a serious expression.

“Really? He missed me?” Steve questioned with a surprised tone of voice. Finding out that Tony had missed him made his stomach fluttered pleasantly. 

“No, wipe that goofy smile off your face, you know how grumpy he gets when he’s awaken,” Bucky warned. 

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll deal with him. Besides, if he missed me, he’s going to be happy to see me, isn’t he?” Steve reasoned. Bucky sighed deeply before letting his arm go.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Bucky stated as walked towards the couch and sat on it, reaching for the TV remote. 

Steve didn’t bother to stay and listen to what Bucky had to say, instead, he turned around and made a beeline to the nursery, smiling to himself when he heard the soft melody coming from inside. Tony hated the musical mobile that hung from his crib, and he threw a tantrum every time they turned it on when he was awake, so they waited until he was asleep to do it, because it certainly helped him to sleep more peacefully. 

Pushing the door opened, Steve made his way to the crib and leaned over one of its sides. Tony was lying on his back, mouth slightly open, and right arm hugging a dog plushie to his chest. For someone who claimed to dislike stuffed animals, Tony always ended up grabbing one in his sleep. 

"Sweetheart," Steve called after a few minutes. Watching Tony sleep was something he found very soothing, and he would have gladly done that all afternoon, but he also wanted to interact with him, and to do that, he needed him to be awake. "Baby, daddy's home," he announced, raising his voice a little. Tony stirred, but he didn't wake up.

After trying to wake him up for some more minutes without achieving it, Steve put down the side of the crib carefully and bended over until his face was a couple of inches away from Tony’s tummy. He took some seconds to inhale that baby smell he totally loved, and then he started pressing kisses to Tony’s belly. 

It wasn’t long before Tony slowly began to come awake. He made a little whiney sound while he stretched out and then his eyes fluttered open, blinking several times before he was able to focused on anything. Steve kept the kisses coming, just stopping to smile widely when Tony noticed his presence, and he would have continued giving him kisses if Tony hadn’t crawled to the corner of the crib crying at the top of his lungs, calling for Bucky. 

“Great job, daddy,” Bucky said a bit sarcastically as he appeared at the door, crossing the room in four strides. “That’s why I told you not to wake him up,” he scolded, sliding his arms under Tony’s armpits and lifting him up, “ohh, it’s okay, doll, it’s okay,” he soothed Tony, bouncing him gently at the same time he rubbed his back. Bucky glared at him on his way out of the nursery, leaving Steve with a baffled expression on his face.

What on earth had just happened?

_______________

“Tony, come on baby, come to dada,” Steve begged, motioning for Tony to ‘come here’ with his hands, arms extended. Just as he has been doing for the last thirty minutes, Tony shook his head energetically while his hands clutched Bucky’s t-shirt like his life depended on it. “Yes baby, come here,” he insisted. 

“Stop that, you’re gonna upset him again,” Bucky ordered, a disapproving look on his face. 

“But I just don’t get it, what did I do? Are you mad at me for leaving, sweety? Because if that’s the case, I promise I won’t go on missions anymore,” Steve assured, placing a hand on Tony’s back. Tony shook it off right away. “Come on, Tony, don’t be like that with me. Come here,” he said before lifting Tony from Bucky’s lap and placing him on his. 

“Papa!” Tony cried, hands reaching for Bucky desperately. Bucky raised an eyebrow at Steve. 

“Come on, Tony, tell me why you you’re mad at me,” Steve pleaded, trying to keep Tony in place.

“Papa!”

“Is it because I didn’t say good bye to you? I’m so sorry, baby, but I left very early and I didn’t want to wake you up,” Steve apologized as he rubbed a thumb against Tony’s tummy, though the caress went probably unnoticed due to how much Tony was moving in his attempt to go back to Bucky. 

“Papa!” Tony called again, this time with tears in his eyes, Bucky reach for him and held him against his chest immediately. 

“That’s enough, stop upsetting him,” Bucky ordered.

“But I want to know what’s wrong,” Steve whined, furrowing his brow when Bucky hugged Tony in such protective way Steve knew the chances of him being able to hold him again were non-existent. 

“You really don’t know what happened?” Bucky asked, sounding a bit surprised. 

“You do?”

“Well, I would’ve gotten a bit unsettled too if I’d been awaken by Bigfoot,” Bucky commented. 

“Hey!” 

“Go and get rid of the extra hair,” Bucky ordered getting up from the couch and walking towards the window. 

_______________

“Tony, the piece doesn’t fit there,” Steve pointed out, refraining himself from chuckling when Tony tried to put two pieces together – that clearly didn’t match – by hitting them. 

“No!” Tony ordered right after he saw Steve picking up some of the pieces. 

“What? Why not?” Steve asked, voice confused. 

“No! Me!” Tony clarified as he crawled closer to Steve, his small hands reaching for the pieces. 

“What’s the point of asking me to play with you if you won’t let me help you?” Steve questioned, letting Tony take the pieces of the puzzle from his hand. Tony’s cheeks puffed into a pout, and Steve couldn’t help leaning forward a little to press a kiss to one of them. 

“NO!” Tony complained, slapping Steve’s thigh.

“Hey, no hitting,” Steve scolded, giving him one more kiss. 

“’TOP!” Tony demanded as he hit him one more time, earning another kiss. “NOO!”

“If you don’t stop hitting me, I won’t stop kissing you,” Steve warned right when Tony raised his hand, threatening to slap him once more. Tony’s pout deepened, but he lowered his hand and he focused on the pieces he had taken away from Steve minutes before. 

A one-thousand-piece round jigsaw puzzle that, once completed, was supposed to be a rainbow palette. Leave it to Tony to want to play with something like that. Despite being round, Tony hadn’t struggled with pulling out all the edge pieces and connecting them, but now that it was time to put together the center pieces, well, it was turning out to be quite difficult, and Tony’s patience had certainly shrunk as well as his body. 

“I don’t think those go there either,” Steve commented. 

“Me!” Tony protested, making Steve sigh. 

It was a matter of time before Tony got frustrated and lost it. Steve didn’t want to have to deal with a tantrum when they were supposed to be having a good time. When Tony began throwing the pieces which refused to fit, Steve lifted him up and placed him on his lap. Tony didn’t like it that much when Steve tickled him, though he also seemed to have a hard time getting mad after he had laughed so much, as his brain focused more on trying to even his breathing than on whatever it had upset him. 

With that in mind, Steve pulled Tony’s t-shirt over his head and started blowing raspberries directly on his bare belly. Tony shrieked at the sensation and began wriggling around in an attempt to get free, but Steve’s kept him in place gently and effortlessly. Although it was obvious he was trying to refrain himself from doing so, Tony started squealing with laughter, something that encourage Steve to continue. Tony’s giggles were music to his ears. 

Shamefully, those squeals turned into cries from one moment to the next, and Steve was taken aback when he found himself with a wailing Tony in his arms, batting at his head frantically. 

“Did you seriously just make him cry?” Bucky asked as he appeared on Steve’s left side, startling him. 

“He was laughing two seconds ago, I swear,” Steve defended himself, not putting up resistance when Bucky bended over and picked Tony up. Bucky pursed his lips in disapproval. 

_______________

“Tony, quit it, it hurts,” Steve complained. It didn’t really hurt, but he had to admit having someone pulling your beard constantly was sort of annoying. 

“No!” Tony refused as he slapped him. Okay, Steve had been mistaken, having someone slapping your face constantly was more annoying. 

“Come here, doll,” Bucky said, grabbing Tony by the arm and pulling him gently towards him. Tony whined loudly. “No, Tony, stop bothering you Dada.”

“No, leamme!” Tony ordered, hands pushing Bucky’s arm away. “Dada, pick!” 

“No, because you’re going to continue hitting me,” Steve argued, arms folding over his chest, determined not to give in. 

“No, pick!” Tony promised as his little arms reached for him. 

“Yes, you are.”

“No! Dada!” Tony pleaded with a shaky voice. 

Steve sighed heavily before letting Bucky know with a tired nod that it was fine for him to let Tony free. Without any delay, Tony climbed down Bucky’s lap and crawled towards Steve. 

“Up!” Tony demanded, and as soon as Steve scooped him up and brought him to his chest, Tony’s small hand restarted the tugging and the slapping. 

“You should at least take some seconds to pretend that you weren’t thinking on breaking your promise as soon as you made it,” Steve complained, pushing Tony’s hands away. 

“Seriously dude, what did you do to him?” Bucky questioned, not even trying to hide the mock on his face. 

“Nothing! I swear!” Steve defended himself as he moved his head out of reach of Tony. 

“Then why this obsession with your beard? I mean, I do think you look like a cheap imitation of Thor, but it’s not like I hate it,” Bucky commented, Steve glared at him. “You must’ve done something, because he certainly seems to hate it.”

“I don’t really know what had gotten into him,” Steve assured. And he really didn’t know.

Tony loathed it when his beard came into contact with his skin, the many times he had burst into tears right after Steve had begun kissing him repeatedly or blowing raspberries had made Steve sure of that. Steve didn’t blame him, Tony’s skin was more sensitive now and his facial hair wasn’t exactly silky. The fact that Tony had gotten a slight beard burn shouldn’t have been that shocking. 

Because of that, Steve had stopped those displays of affection, believing that would be enough not to upset Tony anymore. And that should have been enough, after all, Tony had certainly let him know he didn’t enjoy how affectionate Steve was, but it wasn’t. Tony seemed to dislike his beard in general, and Steve had had to deal with a baby who apparently thought the only way there was to get rid of it was pulling out hair by hair. 

“Tony, seriously, stop it, I’m gonna get mad at you,” Steve warmed with a serious tone of voice. 

“No!”

“Jesus Tony, what problem do you have with my beard? I’ve apologized several times for hurting you with it, I promise I won’t do it again,” Steve said for who knows what time that week. 

“No! Chave!” Tony ordered, stretching as much as he cool to reach Steve’s face. 

“I already told you I’m not shaving it.”

“No wike it!” Tony informed, cheeks puffed in a pout. 

“But I do,” Steve argued. 

“No!” Tony denied, finally reaching Steve’s beard and pulling it yet one more time. 

Steve just winced at the wail that escaped from Tony’s mouth when he stood up and placed Tony on Bucky’s lap. 

_______________

“Dada!” Tony called him as he tugged at his sweatpants. Steve stopped chopping the carrots for a moment to look down at him, and he couldn’t help frowning when Tony raised his arms wanting to be scooped up. “Up!”

“I already told you I’m busy making lunch,” Steve said, returning his focus to the carrots. 

“Dada!” Tony insisted, tugging at his pants again. 

“Busy.”

“I ’ep!” Tony offered. 

“I don’t need help, I’m almost done,” Steve lied. Tony liked helping with preparing meals every now and then – Steve suspected he did that just as a way to try to ingest something he wasn’t supposed to – but right now he was completely sure the only reason Tony wanted to be picked up was because of that obsession with his beard. 

“No! Dada!” Tony whined as he stamped his feet in anger. 

“Tony, if you keep distracting me, lunch will never be ready,” Steve warned, though he doubted Tony cared about that. 

“Up!” 

“Would you please take him?” Steve asked, fixing his eyes on Bucky. 

Bucky calmly took a sip from his water bottle before answering, “You know he’d cry if I do that.”

“But I’m gonna end up stepping on him,” Steve said, pursing his lips at how Tony stubbornly followed him on his way to the fridge. 

Yesterday, Steve had knocked him over by accident, and even if Tony hadn’t gotten hurt, Steve had felt awful. He had missed Tony terribly when he was away on a mission, and he definitely liked it when Tony willingly wanted to be around him, but having him chasing after him whenever he went during all day was beginning to be a bit too much. 

“Why don’t you save it off? He’s not gonna stop harassing you until you do,” Bucky assured.

“But I like it.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t,” Bucky pointed out. 

“But I can’t understand why, my beard doesn’t go near you anymore.” Steve directed the last sentence to Tony. “I mean, tell me a good reason why I should shave it besides the fact that you don’t like it. Tell me why you don’t like it, and I will shave it,” he promised. A scowl appeared on Tony’s face before he kicked Steve in the ankle, clearly tired of having his demands ignored. “Hey! Don’t start with that,” he ordered, though Tony didn’t hesitate to throw another kick at him, “no, we’re not doing this again.”

Steve wiped his hands on the apron and bend down to lift up Tony, holding him up away from his face. Determined, he walked closer to the highchair and set Tony in it, snapping the strap shut to make sure he didn’t fell off it. 

“And now he’s crying… _again_ ,” Bucky commented. Steve took a deep breath. 

_______________

"No Tony, stay right there," Steve ordered, keeping a hand in front of Tony so he didn't move closer to the edge of the armchair. 

"No!" 

"Yes, I need to go training and I can't take you with me," Steve explained, though Bucky knew it was futile. It was no use trying to explain something to Tony when every demand had fallen on deaf ears over the last week. 

"No! Up!" Tony insisted, holding out an arm to Steve while he used the other to push Steve's hand. 

"Buckyyyy," Steve called, sounding a bit too much like Clint when he complained to Phil. 

"Yes?" Bucky answered, trying not to look amused. 

"A little help here," Steve begged. 

"He doesn't want me. He wants you," Bucky commented. 

“But it’s your turn to look after him while I go training,” Steve complained. 

“I know, and I’d be more than happy to take care of him. But again, he wants you,” Bucky insisted, failing to hide a smirk. 

It had been kind of funny to see Steve and Tony interact lately. Normally, Steve was the one who was all over Tony trying to spend some quality time with him, and Tony was the one who demanded to be given some space; but those roles had been exchanged without a doubt. Bucky had gotten used to seeing Tony waddling behind Steve, just like a duckling following his mother. And even if Steve had clearly enjoyed it during the first couple of days, after two weeks, it had gotten on his nerves. 

“He’s going to fall if you don’t take him,” Steve warned. 

“Then don’t leave,” Bucky said calmly. 

“Oh, c’mon!” Steve expressed, a bit upset.

“Just shave it, I’ve told you thousands of times that’s the only solution.” 

“I will when he tells me why he doesn’t like it.” Steve promised, squinting at Tony, who was more concentrated on how to get rid of Steve’s arm so he could climb off the armchair.

“You complain about how stubborn he is, but you’re too.” Bucky commented. 

“I just want to know why.”

“I’m shocked you still haven’t figured it out,” Bucky said, though he was sure Steve didn’t hear him, as Tony had begun crying because Steve kept ignoring his demands of moving his arm away so he could get closer to him.

_______________

If Steve was asked what the movie being played on the screen was about, he would have no idea of what to answer. It was an animated movie with some sort of robots in it, but that was pretty much everything he knew. When he settled into the couch with a small bowl of popcorns in his hands, he had had every intention of paying attention to it; and he certainly had at the beginning, before Tony started kicking him.

The first kicks passed almost unnoticed by Steve, Tony tended to wriggle a lot before settling into a comfortable position – especially when he was sitting down between Bucky and him, not wanting to be too close to them, but not too far either – so Steve had figured that was what Tony had been doing. However, when the kicks didn’t stop after some minutes, Steve couldn’t help wondering if Tony was doing it on purpose. Was he still mad at him? That couldn’t be. It was true that Tony had been hitting him a lot over the last weeks, but the problem had been his beard and Steve had already shaved it off, so what could possibly be upsetting Tony now?

Nothing, apparently. When Steve looked down at him out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Tony was leaning against Bucky’s side, his eyes focused on the TV while he gave lazy sucks to the thumb in his mouth. Tony wasn’t even paying attention to him. That had made Steve thought it had been his imagination, that Tony had been truly stretching and Steve’s thigh had just been in the way. And Steve would have kept thinking that if the kicks hadn’t continued. They weren’t frequent and they didn’t feel like Tony had been trying to hurt him (he actually couldn’t do that, but that never stop him from trying), so Steve chose to ignoring them.

But then, the kicks became more frequent, and when Steve looked at Tony once more, he was surprised to see him with his lips slightly curled into a smile. 

“Hey! I knew I wasn’t imagining it,” Steve exclaimed, gently pushing Tony’s legs away from him. 

“Tony, stop bothering your Dada,” Bucky ordered as he reached for the bowl of popcorns Steve had on his lap. Tony fidgeted a little, but said nothing. 

Ten minutes later, when Steve thought Tony wouldn’t hit him anymore, he felt yet another kick. He looked down at Tony once more, but the former smiled innocently and pretended nothing had happened. 

“If you want me to move, just say it,” Steve suggested. Maybe what Tony wanted was more space. It wouldn’t be the first time he asked for it that way. Tony shook his head, and stretched his leg to kick him once more. “If you do that again, I’m going to kiss you,” Steve warned.

“No!” Tony shrieked, earning a chuckle from Bucky. Steve didn’t know whether to feel glad because that threat seemed to always deter Tony from doing whatever bad thing he was doing, or to feel sad because of the way Tony rejected any show of affection from him. 

“Well, then stop it,” Steve ordered, getting a nod for an answer. And another kick as soon as he looked away from Tony. “Okay, I warned you.”

“No!” Tony demanded when Steve leaned forward to kiss him noisily on his tummy. 

“If you don’t like it, then stop kicking me,” Steve exclaimed as he pulled away fast enough so Tony couldn’t slap him on the face. 

Tony puffed out his cheeks and kicked him again. “No!” he ordered, but even if he extended his arms to try to stop Steve from going closer, Steve managed to press another kiss to his stomach. 

“If you weren’t going to watch the movie, why are we here?” Bucky complained.

“I _was_ going to watch it, but your son won’t let me,” Steve argued before taking Tony’s little foot in order to pretend to eat it. If Tony thought he was going to be able to kick him on the face, he was more than mistaken. 

“Papa!” Tony called when he realized he couldn’t set his foot free. Rolling his eyes, Bucky pushed Steve away and lifted Tony to place him on the other side, away from Steve. 

“If you’re not going to put up with your Dada’s payback, then don’t get him started,” Bucky scolded, “Now, if you’re not going to watch the movie, tell me, so we can go to bed.”

“No!” Tony denied. 

“Then, settle down… you too,” Bucky clarified before Steve could reach out for Tony when he stuck his tongue at him.

For a little while, Steve could finally pay attention to the film. There were effectively some robots in it, as well as some humans who were extremely overweight, but before he could really understand what the plot was about, he felt how something fell on his lap. He looked down at it, and raised a confused eyebrow at the popcorn that lay between his legs. Had it felt off the bowl when Bucky took it away from him? He couldn't really recall. Not that it mattered that much. He reached for the popcorn and ate it just to see another one fall right where the other popcorn had been. And another one. Somebody must have thrown them. 

Steve turned his head towards Tony just in time to see Bucky raising the bowl of popcorns, away from the baby. 

"'imme!" 

"No, you're just throwing them," Bucky refused, extending an arm in front of Tony to prevent him from falling off the couch in his attempt to reach the bowl. 

"No! Hungy!" Tony insisted. 

Bucky sighed, and he pursed his lips as he grabbed one popcorn and handed it to Tony, “if you throw it again, I won’t–” But Tony had thrown the popcorn at Steve before Bucky could finish that sentence. 

“Okay, that’s it, you asked for it,” Steve remarked as he stood up from the couch and walked past Bucky, kneeling down right in front of Tony so he could pin him down. In a matter of seconds, he had Tony wriggling frantically as laughed chokingly. 

“You’re two of a kind,” Bucky said without being able to help smiling.

_______________

“Well, at least we won’t struggle to get him to sleep,” Bucky whispered when he saw Tony curled against Steve’s chest, eyes closed. “But I guess he’ll need a change before, you made him laugh too much.”

“He was asking for it, you saw it,” Steve defended himself, and Bucky couldn’t argue back. Every time Steve stopped tickling him, kissing him or blowing raspberries on his stomach, Tony began bothering him once more after catching his breath. 

“Of course he was, you finally shaved off your beard,” Bucky said with a tone of voice that expressed how obvious his comment was. 

“What does that have to do with this?” Steve asked, bewildered. 

“You really are oblivious.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Steve questioned, bouncing Tony gently. 

Bucky shook his head slightly. “I can’t believe you never figured out the reason why he hated your beard so much,” he said as he turned off the TV and stood up.

“You did?” 

“Of course. He likes it when you kiss him, and you wouldn’t do it as long as you had that beard because you didn’t want to hurt him,” Bucky informed, turning around and heading towards the hallway, not without glancing beforehand at the goofy smile on Steve’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this chapter unfinished for months and I just couldn't get around to finishing it. But I've been so freaking stressed lately, and I just needed to write to blow off some steam. 
> 
> I changed some things and added some others. After a comment from SailorChibi, I added the scene were Tony gets scared to see Steve with beard, so, thanks you for that input (OMG, if it wasn't an input, please let me know and forgive me for "stealing" your idea, because I definitely didn't mean to do that)
> 
> Anyway, I really don't know where this is going, I just enjoy writing Grumpy!Baby!Tony. I don't really have anything else in mind (just a chapter that is also unfinished, something christmassy) but besides that, nothing. So this might as well go on hiatus, I'm not sure - because sometimes I come up with something out of the blue - but I just want to warn you because I might not update this in a long time.
> 
> Thanks for your comments, and please, if you spotted a mistake, or a sentence that sounds off, pleas elet me know.

**Author's Note:**

> About Bruce, well, I wasn't trying to make him look like a douche, I just thought it would be a good idea if there was someone who make Steve and Bucky see some 'reason'. I don't know, I'm a teacher, so I've seen plenty of parents overreacting for things are really not a big deal. I don't have any children of my own, I haven't really been around kids in my own family (I'm one of the youngest ones) so I don't really have much experience in this area. 
> 
> Which brings me to my second point. I did some research about ear infections, and a lot of websites pointed out what Bruce said, most ear infections clear up by themselves. Sorry if the facts didn't meet reality, I know some of the people who read this have children and they have a much better understanding of how to deal with babies n_n'. I just wanted a sick!baby!Tony story (because, you know, the comfort ♥) and this is what I came up with. 
> 
> And finally, well, just to remind you English is not my first language, and I've never lived in an English speaking country and I don't have bilingual parents or grandparents, so, if you see any horrible mistakes, please let me know, I would appreciate it a lot, as one of the reasons I started writting was because I wanted to improve my writting skills :)


End file.
